Here, in their own words, are Democrats covering up the Fannie Mae fiasco in which they say over and over again that there is no need for a fix while Republicans say over and over that it IS a mess and needs to fixed:
See author page
Video Of Democrats Covering Up The Fannie Mae/Mac Mess
They and Bush didn’t say it loud enough, so it was never heard.
Yep. The Democrats lied. The mass media covered up for them. And the willingly ignorant public bought every word of it. SOP for 8 years now. Until the American public wakes the hell up and gets it collective head out of its ass, this is going to continue to happen over and over and over.
So how does Bush fail to get through proper legislation for reform when he had for SIX years a Congress that had a Republican majority?
@GaffaUK:
How many votes do you need to get a bill past a filibuster threat in the US Senate?
Hint: A simple majority won’t do it.
Strange system when a majority doesn’t work – or is that the praised ‘Checks and Balance’s system we hear so much about? So where there a bill and was there a filibuster? Or was it just bluster – but not acted upon nor pushed through?
Dems had the press in their pocket, they had to cover for democrat CEO’s cooking the books.. Capitalism is not the problem, we have no more honest people around i guess. Maybe some of our militay men and women can return and fill this gaps. No more lawyers in D.C. Frank Raines, mentioned in the video , was only fired after he was caught cooking the books. He gets away with 90 million. Jamie Gorelik , dem, Janet Renos Lt. AG , CEO fannie and Freddie, got away with 26 million. Jim Johnson, another Dem, CEO , not sure how much $$ he ran with. Dems got campaign donations, i would guess, ACORN also involved, pressuring banks to loan to poor.
Lots of money to be had and dems are good at gangster tactics. Bush should have passed it to someone else to get the book cooking out in the open, i don’t understand why he didn’t , he had a terror problem to worry about , and maybe too much faith in the regulators to prevent anything to bad from happening, who knows.
Off subject but everybody needs to read about the Cloward/Piven Strategy-I think mentioned on this site. Have a drink after reading it and pray….. quote from The Federalist”…….I sincerely wish that it may be as clearly forseen by every good citizen, that whenever the dissolution of the Union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim in the words of the poet “Farewell! A long farewell to all my greatness.” John Jay October 31, 1787
Gaffa, first it has to get out of committee, if it does they need 60 votes in the Senate to prevent a filibuster. We have “whips” on boths sides that count votes, if they know they aren’t going to get the votes after getting a bill out of committee, they will just stall the bill, drop it or if they think they can whip up public support, they will vote it out of committee, bring it to the floor and see what happens. All that while looking at the numbers to see how much support to expect in the House. As a rule, they know the end game in committee.
Republicans never had enough of a true majority to prevent a filibuster because of the dead weight RINO’s on the team.
It amazes me that Democrats continue to spread the big lie here that Bush and the Republicans were responsible for the financial collapse of Fannie and Freddie.
Democrats treated those institutions like their own private piggy bank and job bank for their friends.
Just look at all the Dems who used to work for Clinton or some other Dem (Hello Rahm Emanuel?) who got big paying jobs or directorships at Fannie and Freddie.
Meanwhile, the record of Bush efforts to reform the piggy bank are clear:
http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/2008/09/white-house-releases-bush-record-of.html
Democrats successfully blocked those reforms at every step of the way just as the video above documents.
Yet there are some people out there who persist in telling lies.
How convenient.
That tape was from 2004. In 2004 the Republicans were in control of both Congress AND the White House. The Democrats had virtually no power in D.C. If the Whit House believed that it needed extra legislation passed it had the power to do so. The minority party in Congress has little power, and even less when it does not control the White House. Congress neither makes laws nor enforces them, it can only pass bills which are not laws until signed by the POTUS.
Answer to John Ryan
Republicans had only 1 seat majority and 3 or 4 RINOs that always vote dem. I heard talk of filibuster and they could never get a bill out of committee for a vote on the floor.
@Kim Galloway:
Yeah, Kim, it’s interesting how the Left demonizes the GOP for not being able to do anything to stop the Democrat-caused Fannie-Freddie corruption, yet they give the Democrat Congress a complete pass for not doing anything to defund the war effort in Iraq or lower gas prices or fix the economy, as they promised to do if elected in 2006. They were given power in JAN 2007, gas prices doubled, economy started to go downhill and they continued to fund the war effort in Iraq.
Yet, to punish the Democrats for not doing what they promised, the Left turned around and gave them bigger majorities. Ah, Leftist logic, ain’t it grand.
For the last eight years the Main Stream Media has been bashing George W. Bush and the Republicans, while suppressing any thing negative about the Democrats. Since Nov. 2003 when Obama gave the speech at the DNC, MSM has been reporting only favorable things about him while suppressing anything negative and attacking anyone who had the nerve to say a disparaging word.
It is very easy to understand why Bush’s poll numbers were so low and Obama’s are so high, but are now slipping because there are more and more people speaking out.
Try this simple brainwashing technique: Pick one of your co-workers, we’ll call him Joe, then tell the rest of your co-workers every time they see Joe, tell him he doesn’t look well, and looks as if he is sick.
I will be willing to bet that by noon Joe goes home sick.
For over thirty years our educational system has been indoctrinating students to accept the “consensus”opinion of the many, whether there was truth in the opinion or not. The Global Warming Fraud, is an example of this. This is how so many were conned into accepting the Socialist ideology drummed into our children by our schools and colleges. The MSM supports that ideology and re-enforces it.
Thank goodness there are still many Independent minded people who do not accept consensus opinions, but question everything and use all resources to get ALL the information, then based on their findings, make their own decisions. These are the truly Intellectual “Elite” in our society.
Remember, Complex things are woven for the sole purpose of deception, but the goal of intelligence is to render complex things simple. Beware of those who create “complex” problems, then propose “complex” solutions for those problems. You can be sure that the “complex” solution comes from your wallet.
The House passed Fannie/Freddie regulatory reform (Oxley Bill) on a bipartisan vote.
It went to the Senate. Bush and the Senate leadership didn’t like the House bill.
The following is an excerpt from letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, commenting on a WSJ editorial:
http://wsj.net/article/SB121746628592499215.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
Why didn’t the Senate come up with their own, alternative bill?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27266607/ (nb. This is an MSNBC link, but it’s an AP story, which ran in all the news media)
Basically, it was Bill Frist who ultimately “blocked” the Senate bill. There were 25 Republican Senators who signed Senator Hagel’s letter and 29 Republicans who did not sign it, including not only the then-GOP majority leader (Frist), but also the current GOP minority leader (Mitch McConnell).
We now have the complete story of the 2005 attempts to regulate Fannie Mae. A regulatory bill passed in the House, with a majority of Democrats joining with a majority of Republicans to approve the bill, despite speeches against the bill by Barney Franks and Maxine Waters. Some Democrats said dumb things, but a majority of Democrats voted in favor. According to the Bill’s sponsor, Republican Michael Oxley, the bill was opposed by the Bush White House and by the Senate.
We now know the details of the Senate opposition. (story above). They caved to lobbying against the bill by a GOP lobbying firm.
Democrats did NOT “block” financial reforms in 2005. Which is precisely why neither John McCain nor any Senate Republican running for re-election (including Mitch McConnell) made that charge! McCain said that he signed a letter supporting reform. We now know what the letter was. And we now know why it didn’t go anywhere.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
@Missy
So the executive saw there was a problem and just gave up? What sort of leadership is that? lol. It is their responsibility to enact change, persuade and show leadership. Bitching about the opposition doesn’t cut it. I’m surprised they didn’t come up with a plan for reform and put it to a vote.
Imagine if Obama with the current economy woes had a plan but did the maths and felt he was never going to convince the Senate and Congress to vote for it – so he settled on just giving up and never trying?! Whether you like the stimulus package or not – he put it together, he campaigned on it, he tried to gather support, he put it to a vote, he failed on the first go, he compromised and pushed it through.
Why couldn’t Bush do that with reform on Freddie Mac? He was the one in power. What happened with the buck stops at the president? Doesn’t the President have executive powers? As for RINOs – if they continually vote against their party then can’t you deselect them at an election?
I love the left’s argument here. “Sure the Democrats screwed up, but why didn’t the Republicans do more to stop them!!!”
You celebrate the “bipartisan” Senators like Specter and Snowe all of the time, except now, when they should have towed the party line.
Answer to OPenid
Sarbanes/Oxley was passed, pay attention, Freddie and Fannie did not fall under the 33 act or 34 act. This stated by senator Shays in the video presented on this site. He says fannie and freddie ran on their own act, being covered by lobbyist and dem sentators sitting in that commitee hearing. You even have clinton at the end of the video saying it is the dems fault for not cracking down on fannie freddie, come on, be intellectually honest here.
Diff. subject, but i was standing in line at a grocery store and overheard people talking about last November elections. I heard one women tell another she is a dem but will vote republican because dems don’t know how to manage the economy. Go Figure.
Answer to Gaffa
Obamas campaign was running on small government and tax cuts. He lied, and sucked in some independents, and wall street, hedge fund guys who are now feeling taken for voting for this socialist. Remember, there are videos running and he is on tape talking about small government and low taxes for everybody. Even a commercial played often of him talking about all the new coal power plants being built that he supports.
He also , twice, in 2 days stood up and said, with a straight face, that there were no earmarks or pork in his spending bill or the new budget that passed the senate last week. Very scary guy.
Rush hit it right tonight at CPac how b.o. thinks he is fdr one day, Lincoln the next. He is all things to whoever he is trying to impress or trick.
I knew delusional larry would post his repeatedly disproven claim it’s the Reps fault. He’s like a broken record. It’s typical of the left to come back with the same arguemnt over and over.
Here’s a novel idea, Hard Right. Why don’t you go beyond name calling and actually provide a cogent refutation of the facts I cited in comment # 13? Engage me in an actual debate, as opposed to throwing a rotten tomato at me and then scurrying back down into your anonymous spider hole. Talk to me, buddy. We both might learn something. Do you really think that you are contributing anything at all original?
In point of fact, all I’m arguing here on this particular thread is against the spurious claim that Democrats “blocked” Fannie/Freddie reform. This is certifiably false, as is 100% evident from the non-refuted facts in my comment # 13.
With respect to “fault” for the meltdown — the “fault” was too much capital with no place to go. There was a certifiable capital glut. Every economist agrees with this. The glut was caused by two things: Alan Greenspan pushing interest rates down to stimulate the economy and George W Bush giving massive tax cuts, financed with massive borrowing, also to stimulate the economy. These are also irrefutable facts.
What is entirely refutable is the suggestion that the minuscule, teensy weensy (an expression used here before by Mike and now borrowed by me) percentage (probably less than 1%) of all the toxic securities are in any way related to Democratic (or Republican, for that matter, because President Bush was also a supporter of expanding home ownership opportunities) efforts to promote home ownership to less affluent people. What is also entirely refutable is the suggestion (much less assertion) that Democrats “blocked” Fannie/Freddie reform. See comment # 13.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
@openid.aol.com/runnswim: “Engage me in an actual debate”
I’ve been doing that for months Larry and it hardly makes a dent in your programmed way of thinking.
You simply REFUSE to acknowledge the facts here.
I’d say Hard Right knows it’s a waste of time to engage you further.
Myself and many others have presented the entire panoply of facts and figures and you simply dismissed them all.
i too have encountered people like openid. i always like listening to the other side to make sure that i am on the right side of things. but, bantering back and forth , nothing is gained and is really silly and a waste of time. if we could just put together the good ideas from the left and right we might get somewhere.imho, it is really interesting to hear an itelligent exchange in our differences than bantering back and forth. after all, we are in this situation together and we need to come together to get us out of it by listening to each others ideas and learning something from each side. but that is utopia!
Openid
You are right about the interest rates being cut to often. Even when the markets were doing great, they kept cutting the rate. Bush did want everyone to own a home also but I’m sure he didn’t want people in homes to default or leave back to mexico with cash, abandoning the home. Banks were letting people lie on application, ACORN pushed and threatened banks to loan to the poor. Rate cuts , killed the dollar, ACORN and The ACLU types added to the disaster.
Even after these bad practices are now known to be a big part of the crash , Obama is not the solution. I feel he is delibrately trying to use ecomonic terrorism, to overburden the welfare entitlements, and kill the dollar so there is nowhere to turn but the government, which is him and the dems to save us. Cloward/Piven Strategy.
Between Fort Knox and the Fed, we have maybe 50 billion in gold to back up our dollar. If i have this wrong i hope someone knows. That is not a good sign for us. Obama total expenditures for 40 days in office. 3.5 trillion. He is insane. Dems had a cow with Bush being at a deficit last year of 400 billion. Thats running two war fronts, and others special ops we know nothing about, 9-ll, 200 billion for Katrina, helping tsanami victims, etc.
Caught in spam, P&T.
Minor quibble @GaffaUK:
Six years? What about Jeffords?
@Missy: Were you rescued? I saw nothing in spam.
No, I’ll try to find the link and repost.
You would have to be color blind not to notice that black whores, pimps, parrasites and organized criminals (not to mention Barney Now let me perfectly Frank about this) who Represent citizens throughout the country are the primary cause of the failure of Fannie and Freddie and the subsequent financial crisis that we all currently face. They all should be immediately arrested and put into jail, along with thier “lackey” Mr. Raines.
@Wordsmith
If Bush can persuade Dems to vote for War – surely he could of gained enough votes for housing reform
Gaffa, persuading a vote for the Iraq war wasn’t a problem. Daschle(democrat) who was Senate Majority Leader at the time moved up the vote so it would occur before the November elections. He wanted it known that the dems were brave too.
Prior to the Bush presidency, newspapers of record reported on the evil deeds of Saddam and his links to terrorism. Dem getting tough on the evil regime quotes were often in print.
Now, when it comes to cash cows that buy votes, things get a bit trickier. This is a left leaning site that was tracking the Fannie/Freddie GSE debate and bills that were going through Congress in 2004. Even though the GSEs were already known to be a threat, prior to 2004, they were still attempting to milk it.
Scan and scroll. Note the advocacy groups called out to go after Congress. Bush called on Congress to rectify this problem numerous times, a bill never made it to his desk.
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/815
@Missy:
Yep, in 1998-1999, the mass media was more than happy to report on the ties between Saddam/Iraq and terrorism, even the ties between Saddam and al Qaeda/bin Laden.
And then suddenly, when the Bush Administration was telling the American public about these ties, suddenly the mass media had a case of amnesia and then deliberately lied about something they were more than happy to report just a mere 4-5 years earlier. Funny how that works.
@Michael in MI:
Nice recap, thanks Mike. Off topic, but that reminds me of a touche Tony Blankley has out today:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/03/obama-lied-the-economy-died/
So, now we can count on Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to pass a comprehensive, non-pork laden bill that Obama will sign readily and transparency and prosperity will reign!
I’m holding my breath and investing in the stock market!