September 30th, 2008 • 1:01 amBarney Frank Spinning Out of Control
This AP Article quotes Barney Frank spinning his head off. Here’s what he’s quoted as saying:
That was a remarkable accusation by Republicans against Republicans, said Rep. Barney Frank, (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee: “Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country.”
Rep. Frank is the one who punished the country. He didn’t punish it today. Instead, he punished it 4 years ago by pretending that Fannie and Freddie didn’t have problems:
Frank was adamant that “these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis.” When the White House warned of “systemic risk for our financial system” unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.
The Bush administration was right to be “more concerned about financial safety than about housing.” I wish Rep. Frank had been “more concerned about financial safety than about housing.” If he’d paid attention, we might’ve reformed these GSE’s and saved taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
It isn’t the least bit unfair to say that this could’ve been averted had Democrats like Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Greg Meeks, Artur Davis and Lacy Clay paid attention to Christopher Shays, Ed Joyce and Richard Baker way back in 2004. This video highlights the Democrats’ role in this crisis:
It’s time for the Right Blogosphere to highlight Barney Frank’s statements at this 2004 hearing. They’ve been proven wrong in the extreme. I think he knew they were wrong because I think Barney Frank is a smart guy.
These vulnerable Democrats voted no on this bill:
Altmire, Barrow, Boyda, Cazayoux, Childers, Giffords, Gillibrand, Kagen, Lampson, Shuler, Stupak, Mark Udall (CO), Tom Udall (NM), Walz and John Yarmuth.
These committee chairs in safe seats voted no, too:
Conyers, Delahunt, Collin Peterson and Bennie Thompson.
If this was that important, why couldn’t Ms. Pelosi 12 of these 19 Democrats to vote for the bill? It’s time we laid blame where it rightfully belongs: at the Democrats’ doorstep. They ignored the problem when it was a manageable problem, then voted in droves against the bill that supposedly would’ve fixed the crisis.
To say they aren’t to blame is laughable.
Technorati: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, Greg Meeks, Artur Davis, Lacy Clay, John Conyers, Collin Peterson, Bennie Thompson, Ed Joyce, Christopher Shays, Reform, Accountability, Financial Crisis
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K - I have no problems placing partial blame at these individual’s feet.
But exactly what bill are you talking about when you say they voted ‘no’?
In 2004 the Republicans controlled both branches of congress. The best the Dems could have done would have been to filibuster. But again - what bill?
If you’re talking about the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 - it never even got out of Committee, which in 2005 was again controlled by the Republicans.
SO. . . don’t blame one side. They’ve all screwed the pooch real well on this one. But forget partisan politics - how about we simply blame the banks who were stupid enough to give loans to people that simply couldn’t afford them, and the people that were stupid enough to take those loans.
Comment by Arghyle • 02Oct2008 @ 5:11 pm
First, it was the FHERRA. You’re right that it didn’t get enough support, which is a demerit for both sides.
how about we simply blame the banks who were stupid enough to give loans to people that simply couldn’t afford them?
No thanks. The laws that got passed in 1999 FORCED banks into making loans to people with questionable credit ratings. If they didn’t make these loans, they were penalized. That isn’t giving them much choice.
Comment by Gary Gross • 02Oct2008 @ 5:33 pm
Back.
I have to ask - exactly which law(s) FORCED banks into making loans? And exactly what were the penalties? Because I haven’t heard a single thing about this one. In ‘99 the only major banking law I can think of right now is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and there’s no way that’s what you’re referring to.
Actually - I was listening to the radio just yesterday and they had on the president of a local commercial bank (much smaller than the recent failures). They were asking him if his bank was in trouble and if he it was going to have to borrow money and so on. He essentially said “Ha. No - we weren’t that stupid. We’re fine.”
Comment by Arghyle • 03Oct2008 @ 12:04 pm