On 12-17-09, BOB KLAHN said to TIM RICHARDSON:



TR> The blame can be laid right at the feet of Chris
TR> Dodd......Barney Frank...et al.


BK>And you bought into the big lie from the right. Barney Frank
BK>opposed the Bush "Ownership Society" with everyone owning a
BK>home. He supported, the Home Financing Reform act of 2005, the
BK>one McCain claimed co-sponsorship so proudly in the 2008
BK>election campaign. Frank co-authored the house version with
BK>republican Michael Oxley of Ohio. Frank did oppose amendments
BK>that he felt compromised it, but it did pass the house. Oxley
BK>said, when Bush torpedoed it in the Senate, Bush gave us a one
BK>fingered salute.



Barney Frank's Fannie and Freddie Muddle - Sam Dealey (usnews.com)


Thursday, December 17, 2009 U.S. News



Now that crisis management has taken root and Fannie and Freddie have been
placed in conservatorship, a number of commentators have remarked that
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's actions bear a striking resemblance to what
his predecessor proposed five years ago. Whether the two mortgage giants
deserve a future will be a pitched battle, but for now, Democratic Rep. Barney
Frank of Massachusetts, the Financial Services Committee chairman, has issued
a press release with a fanciful take on history.


From Frank's press release:


The truth is when President Bush took office, and the Republicans controlled
both houses of Congress, he did not make any progress on comprehensive
legislation to reform the regulation of the Government Sponsored Enterprises.


It was not until 2005, when the House, on a bipartisan basis, and over the
President's objections finally passed a reform bill. It died in the Senate
in part because the White House's failure to make it a priority.


In fact, here's a New York Times story from September 2003, clearly showing
that the first substantive Fannie and Freddie reform from inside government
came from the Bush administration. Spurred by worries that Fannie and Freddie
were cooking their books and taking too many risks, Treasury Secretary John
Snow proposed placing the companies under Treasury oversight with strict
controls over risk and capital reserves. The NYT labeled the proposal "the
most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the
savings and loan crisis a decade ago" and noted:


Mr. Snow said that Congress should eliminate the power of the president to
appoint directors to the companies, a sign that the administration is less
concerned about the perks of patronage than it is about the potential
political problems associated with any new difficulties arising at the
companies.


So five years ago, there was one of those rare moments in Washington when the
branches and personalities of government (in this case, the Bush
administration) are less interested in protecting or expanding their turf
than in fixing a looming catastrophe. What was Frank's response to the
proposal?


"These two entities (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) are not facing any kind of
financial crisis," said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the
ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. "The more people
exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the
less we will see in terms of affordable housing."


As Frank mentions in his press release today, two years after it was first
proposed, the House finally voted on a bill reforming the mortgage giants.


Alas, the legislation was watered down to the point of being meaningless;
that's why it passed the House with such wide margins (122 Democrats and 209
Republicans).


But even then, and despite his high regard for bipartisanship now, Barney
Frank wasn't among the yeas.

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*Durango b301 #PE*