If Barack Obama had done this. . .
. . .it would be front-page news.
On May 25, 2006, John McCain spoke out “on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005,” a bill designed to fix FannieMae and FreddieMac).
The Arizona Senator and current Republican presidential nominee seems to have foreseen the current crisis:
If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
Once again, the Republican candidate in the presidential race has proven himself to be the real reformer in this race. The Democrat? Out making speeches about change while voting in lock-step with his party on nearly every issue and steering clear of articulating the specific changes he advocates.
Hope the McCain folks (or the RNC) are making an ad about his efforts in ‘06. Maybe he succeeded in pushing this legislation through, we might not face the problems we face today.
So, given his rhetoric for change and challenging special interests, was Barack Obama swayed by these donations? Â Or did he join McCain in pushing reform of these institutions? Â GayPatriot critics, now’s your chance to google away! Â Rhetoric doesn’t count. Â Must be concrete legislation advocated (as in co-sponsored and/or spoke out in favor).
UP-UPDATE (on 09/18): Â McCain addressed this very issue in a speech today in Iowa: “When I pushed legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senator Obama was silent.“
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You leave out the really damning part. Not only is Obama the number two recipient of donations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the guy who more than anyone else contributed to the current market crisis is the Obamassiah’s top economic advisor.
The contrast could not be more stark.
And the MSM will not touch this story.
Comment by V the K — September 17, 2008 @ 10:34 pm - September 17, 2008
A reader email posted at The Corner has this snippet:
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
- John McCain, May 25, 2005
Any lawyers here who can explain why these guys (Obama advisors) aren’t in prison?
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQ4MjI2NWNiZjI4YjgzOGFmMTFiMTQ2MGUwZDQzYTY=
http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306370789279709
Comment by SoCalRobert — September 17, 2008 @ 10:55 pm - September 17, 2008
The Arizona Senator and current Republican presidential nominee seems to have foreseen the current catastrophe:
It only “seems” that way.From PolitiFact:
There’s more at the link.
Comment by Jody — September 17, 2008 @ 11:04 pm - September 17, 2008
Jody, it’s a fact that the ballooning loans to high-risk individuals were encouraged / purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that Republicans and the Bush Administration foresaw the problems and proposed reforms… which Democrats blocked.
What McCain’s exact role was, I don’t care one way or the other. I just know who the real culprits are here. Yes, a former “FM” official who paid himself tens of millions really was Obama’s initial choice for Obama’s VP search committee. Democrats made this mess. That’s what the media doesn’t want you to know.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — September 17, 2008 @ 11:20 pm - September 17, 2008
Um, Jody, maybe he arrived late at the party, but he did speak out for reform–and not just in the abstract. He supported specific legislation.
Maybe it would have helped, maybe it wouldn’t, but at least he tried to something.
Be interested to find out where Barack Obama was on this.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — September 17, 2008 @ 11:37 pm - September 17, 2008
John McCain Had To Give Lots Of Dome To Get In The Network…
“Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president that he’ll take on, and I quote, ‘the old boys network in Washington.’ Now I’m not making this up. This is somebody who’s been in Congress for twenty…
Trackback by Prose Before Hos — September 17, 2008 @ 11:42 pm - September 17, 2008
If McCain is such a maverick and is supposedly fighting all the messes and ills of the country, then why isn’t he running as an independent, perhaps with Lieberman as his running mate? No one’s buying it, especially since over 90-95% of his voting record has been with Bush’s wants. From the beginning of 2001 to the end of 2006, did Bush once veto any legislation sent to him by the republican controlled congress? No sir-ee bob.
You can’t blame the democrats when the republicans were in charge of both the legislative and executive branches of government and could have done something about it with their majority in congress. The simple fact is that they had no interest in it. Their mantra has been (and continues to be, in both McCain’s and Palin’s speeches) “no government intrusion, no government oversight” well, that sure as heck isn’t going to help us out of these financial messes.
Comment by Kevin — September 17, 2008 @ 11:43 pm - September 17, 2008
Kevin, please show me legislation that Obama advocated to try to fix this mess. We have a record of McCain’s efforts to do something. Do you have a record of legislation Obama co-sponsored or promoted with such advocacy as did his rival for the White House.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — September 17, 2008 @ 11:47 pm - September 17, 2008
But you’re buying into Comrade Obama’s message of “change”, even though he votes the party line 95+% of the time? Even though his campaign is comprised of Clintonistas and longtime Washington liberal hacks?
Is that what you’re telling me?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 18, 2008 @ 1:37 am - September 18, 2008
This phony “the Republicans were in charge” meme seems to forget that the Democrats managed to block through filibuster and other parliamentary maneuvers most of the reforms Republicans tried to bring up…. including reform of the mortgage industry.
Comment by V the K — September 18, 2008 @ 5:01 am - September 18, 2008
McCain and Bush each tried to reform fannie mae, and both attempts were blocked by Democrats who not only had their hacks running Fannie Mae into the ground, but are up to their eyeballs in fannie mae cash and corruption. Obama chief among them.
This is a gold mine for McCain and Republicans and THEYRE SILENT???
WTF? They should be spending every dime they have on commercials showhing McCain on the Senate floor pushing that bill, show the vote record that proves Democrats blocked it, show the dollar amounts and the democrats that got them
Ugh! Why do Republicans let Democrats get away with murder?
Also, can we please put Jamie Gorelick in prison where she belongs before she singlehandedly destroys the nation?
Comment by American Elephant — September 18, 2008 @ 5:58 am - September 18, 2008
As much as I choke on the $85B bailout of AIG (a company Obama doesn’t even know the name of), I note that $85B is what the Obamassiah wants to spend *every year* on foreign aid, e.g. American taxpayer dollars that goes to line the Swiss bank accounts of third world oligarchs like Robert Mugabe and the terrorists who run the Palestinian Authority.
Also, I happen to think the worst thing Bush has done wrong in the last eight years has been the massive increases in government spending. Obama wants to spend trillions more, not just on foreign aid, but on universal pre-school, college tuition, socialized health care and subsidies for community organizations. (ahem) We know from experience that Obama likes to use taxpayer dollars to enrich his cronies like Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Fr. Pfleger. He scored a million dollar earmark for the hospital his wife just happened to be working at.
And to pay for this largesse. Obama proposes massive tax increases on the investor class. How is the economy going to create new jobs if the government is sucking capital out of it? The US already has the second highest corporate income tax in the industrialized world. Obama wants it to be the highest, and he wants more regulation. All this does is drive jobs overseas and discourage foreign companies from locating here, and not to mention crushing the entrepreneurial spirit that makes our economy dynamic.
Forget about teaching sex ed to kindergartners, why can’t we have the schools teach that Marzism is a failed ideology?
Comment by V the K — September 18, 2008 @ 7:04 am - September 18, 2008
American Elephant-
You’re forgetting the extraordinarily short attention span of the modern electorate.
Anyone think that Jeremiah Wright is going to be a major influence on anyone’s choice? He’s “Old News.”
The time to make all of one’s best arguments is in the last month. If McCain’s doing it right, we’ll hear all sorts of good arguments in the debate, and then hammering on three or four big themes for the last three weeks to the vote.
Also… the argument isn’t as simple as you (and I) would like it to be. The specific bill McCain did push wouldn’t have prevented this specific crisis. It just would have made the eventual cost to the taxpayer considerably less — but even the argument for that is complicated, and therefore impossible to make over the heads of a hostile media.
Comment by Clint — September 18, 2008 @ 8:39 am - September 18, 2008
The Politics of Change? Obama Bought Off By Fannie Mae…
So much for the politics of change – this isn’t change, it’s checks. Big ones. The Fannie Mae CEO admits, back in 2005, that there were serious problems – in the same speech he calls Obama and the rest of the CBC members of the “f…..
Trackback by Pursuing Holiness — September 18, 2008 @ 9:30 am - September 18, 2008
Fannie Mae CEO to Democrats: “You are our family and our conscience.” This while Fannie Mae was cooking the books to give its CEO and executive management huge bonuses and underwriting billions in bad loans that are hurting our economy.
Barack Obama received $126,349 from Fannie Mae.
Comment by V the K — September 18, 2008 @ 9:56 am - September 18, 2008
These Democrats are a piece of work. Have they done ANYTHING about ANYTHING?
Democratic Congress May Adjourn, Leave Crisis to Fed, Treasury
By Kristin Jensen
Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn’t equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can’t agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.
Lawmakers say they are unlikely to take action before, or to delay, their planned adjournments — Sept. 26 for the House of Representatives, a week later for the Senate. While they haven’t ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, they would rather wait until next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who are leading efforts to contain the crisis, call for help.
One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that “no one knows what to do” at the moment.
Comment by Vince P — September 18, 2008 @ 10:44 am - September 18, 2008
They don’t know how to fix the problem, but they know how to fix the blame: your Democratic party at work.
Comment by V the K — September 18, 2008 @ 10:57 am - September 18, 2008
Whatever one thinks of George W. Bush, he has been screaming about Fannie and Freddie since 2003 that it needed reform, which was about the time that Franklin Raihns and before him Jim Johnson were raping these GSEs and paying themselves large salaries and bonuses and cooking the books. The same Jim Johnson that headed up Obama’s VP selection committee and the same Franklin Raihns who is a chief economic advisor to Obama. If I were McCain/Palin, I would hit that hard and that he has proposed reforming Fannie and Freddie since 2005 and saw the mess coming, while Obama is the number 2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie campaign contributions (I might add number 2 in a 20 yr history of their campaign contributions and Obama has only been in the Senate for 3 years.)
I sure wish that McCain would keep hammering this point home since Obama’s corrupt team will cost us trillions of dollars to fix a bankrupt system and saddle every taxpayer with cleaning up this mess.
Comment by Rocket — September 18, 2008 @ 12:18 pm - September 18, 2008
Whatever one thinks of George W. Bush, he has been screaming about Fannie and Freddie since 2003 that it needed reform, which was about the time that Franklin Raihns and before him Jim Johnson were raping these GSEs and paying themselves large salaries and bonuses and cooking the books. The same Jim Johnson that headed up Obama’s VP selection committee and the same Franklin Raihns who is a chief economic advisor to Obama. If I were McCain/Palin, I would hit that hard and that he has proposed reforming Fannie and Freddie since 2005 and saw the mess coming, while Obama is the number 2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie campaign contributions (I might add number 2 in a 20 yr history of their campaign contributions and Obama has only been in the Senate for 3 years.)
I sure wish that McCain would keep hammering this point home since Obama’s corrupt team will cost us trillions of dollars to fix a bankrupt system and saddle every taxpayer with cleaning up this mess.
Comment by Rocket — September 18, 2008 @ 12:18 pm - September 18, 2008
one more aside, it should be noted it was the Democrats in the House led by Barney Frank and some GOP members and the Democrats in the Senate that blocked reform of Fannie and Freddie. so much for the argument that the GOP controlled Congress. It does take bipartisanship to pass major legislation and the Democrats and NObama showed no leadership on this issue.
And believe me, I wish on other issues that Bush had reigned in spending and didn’t add to the budget with more entitlements we can’t afford (ala prescription drug benefits under Medicaire/Medicaid which however laudable we don’t have the money) and cut the budget where he could…but I do know he kept pushing for reform of the GSEs and it fell on deaf ears because of the Dems blocking it..
Comment by Rocket — September 18, 2008 @ 12:22 pm - September 18, 2008
[...] If Barack Obama had done this. . . [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Obama’s “Do-Nothing” Economic Record — September 19, 2008 @ 1:45 am - September 19, 2008
Clint,
Thats a good point, but when you put off the argument, you run the risk that for one reason or another you wont be able to make it later. You can always bring it up again. Indeed, repetition is a good thing. Democrats have learned the way to win an argument is not by being right, but by making your argument louder and more often.
Comment by American Elephant — September 19, 2008 @ 9:18 am - September 19, 2008
[...] at least four posts (here, here, here and here), I have pointed out that while John McCain has proposed reforms that, if enacted, might have [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Is that the Best you can come up with, Barack? — September 21, 2008 @ 6:08 pm - September 21, 2008
[...] efforts by John McCain & other Republicans to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to prevent a meltdown like [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » MSM’s Missing Stories of Obama — September 25, 2008 @ 6:50 pm - September 25, 2008
[...] GayPatriot » If Barack Obama had done this. . . [...]
Pingback by Another Pelosi Lie: “White House officials prevented Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson from alerting Congress sooner of the looming economic crisis” | Right Voices — October 18, 2008 @ 9:07 pm - October 18, 2008