Here is a link to a you tube video which gives some of the history of the Bush administration's attempts to reign in Freddie and Fannie, and Barney Frank's efforts to stop them..
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1++
The only part of Frank's embarrassing Harvard video which had some validity was when Frank said that blaming him for the sub-prime crisis and the lack of regulation at Fannie and Freddie was a right wing republican strategy to deflect blame from themselves and sadly some here are falling for just such a strategy.
First off barely three months after the hearing linked above President
Bush signed the Bush American Dream act which would help minorities buy homes by helping them with the downpayment.
http://www.americandreamdownpaymentassistance.com/whsp12162003.cfm
I found it amusing that the man who insisted that Fannie and Freddie needed tighter regulation not months later said
"This administration will constantly strive to promote an ownership society in America. We want more people owning their homes. It is in our national interest that more people own their homes.
But Bush isn't responsible for this mess at all it was Barney Frank's fault.
In the Fox piece above they focused on Frank's role in opposing the Bill (HR2575) and some here have said he blocked it even though as a
minority member of the committee he had no such power. The Fox piece only says the bill was blocked which isn't even true if they are referring to the House's action on the bill. They
could be referring to the Senate's action on the bill but their reporting is so shoddy with their mixing of facts one can't tell what happened to the bill in the House.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h108-2575
As the link above makes clear Barney Frank did not block the bill. It was reported out of the committee he sat on and was referred to a sub-committee of which he
was not a member. The bill was never reported out of that committee and since republicans were the majority on that committee they are the ones who would need to explain why it died there and certainly not Mr. Frank.
Without doubt Barney played his role in this mess and as the Harvard Video shows he's no more willing to take any responsibility than the republicans whose primary responsibility it was if you believe that with power comes responsibility.
As an aside had the bill passed the primary regulatory weapon the Treasury would have been given was to increase the capital requirements on Freddie and Fannie which most likely would have increased mortgage interest rates at a time when there was no crisis and I for one doubt they would have done so. Frankiln Raines who was the head of Fannie at the time must have agreed with me because he didn't even oppose the idea of increased regulation as he knows politicians rarely do the unpopular thing like putting a dent in the home refinancing market.
Does anyone know when he is up for re-election? He is a menace to Washington and has "Guilty" written all over him. What a bumbling idiot, too. I suggest putting both him and Pelosi under the bus. The sooner the better.
I'm with you grantt as long as we're including all the republicans serving on the committees in question on that list. I think the majority deserves primary blame but that opinion is based more on logic than politics.
