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Barney Frank, Then and Now

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Greg Mankiw's Blog: Barney Frank, Then and Now

A news story from 2003:


The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

...

Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''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.''

...

A news story from yesterday:

In a sharp-edged debut debate, US Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat, and Sean Bielat, his Republican challenger, squared off yesterday over national security, illegal immigration, and the roots of the mortgage crisis....

Bielat, a former Marine officer from Brookline, said Frank had contributed to the downfall and subsequent recession by supporting lenient lending standards for prospective home buyers.

...

“Low-income home ownership has been a mistake, and I have been a consistent critic of it,’’ said Frank, 70. Republicans, he said, were principally responsible for failing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the government seized in September 2008.

Hilarious.
 
Saw a bumper sticker the other day

Barney Frank is SUCKING the life out of AMERICA
 
Saw a bumper sticker the other day

Barney Frank is SUCKING the life out of AMERICA



Well , his resume is impressive, and there are surely many out there who could give him a good reference.
 
One day regressives will figure out that homosexuals aren't defined solely by that sexual orientation.
 
One day regressives will figure out that homosexuals aren't defined solely by that sexual orientation.

No, some are defined by how well they screwed all of America.
 

it is, overhaul recommended by the bush administration, under a republican congress, went nowhere. gee........why are you pretending this was a dem caused problem?


wiki

In 2003, the Bush Administration sought to create a new agency, replacing the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 1992 in the wake of the Savings and Loan crisis, and over concern similar lending problems would develop, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight was created as part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.[16] While Senate and House leaders voiced their intention to bring about the needed legislation, no reform bills materialized. A Senate reform bill introduced by Senator John Corzine (D-NJ) (S.1656) never made it out of the 21-member (10D/11R) Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.[17] At the time members of the 108th congress expressed faith in the solvency of Fannie and Freddie. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), for example, described them as "not facing any kind of financial crisis." [18]

In 2005, the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act, sponsored by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and co-sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), John McCain (R-AZ) and John Sununu (R-NH)[1], would have increased government oversight of loans given by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Like the 2003 bill, it also died in the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, this time in the 109th Congress. A full and accurate record of the congressional attempts to regulate the housing GSEs is given in the Congressional record prepared in 2005.[19][20]
 
it is, overhaul recommended by the bush administration, under a republican congress, went nowhere. gee........why are you pretending this was a dem caused problem?


wiki

Apr 2, 2009 ... Fannie Mae still has not filed financial statements for 2005 and 2006 and ... to Congressman Barney Frank: "On November 15, 2004 Fannie Mae filed a ... abuse and corruption at these two GSEs while liberals in Congress, ...
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/apr/new
These new documents show that liberals in Congress were reckless when it came to the massive taxpayer liabilities related to Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Government officials at FHFA repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding fraud, abuse and corruption at these two GSEs while liberals in Congress, led by Barney Frank, blocked attempts to address the situation in a meaningful way."
 
it is, overhaul recommended by the bush administration, under a republican congress, went nowhere. gee........why are you pretending this was a dem caused problem?


wiki

Hmmm, could be because the Dems blocked it in committee. Seems the Dems were in the pockets of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, along with the National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors. Yep, dems were in the pockets of big business.

Seems like the one with the biggest hands dipping into pockets was your very own Barack Obama. After only four years in the Senate, he leap frogged John Kerry and became the number two recipient of Freddie and Fannie's campaign donations. The only bigger crook was Chris Dodd.
 
One day regressives will figure out that homosexuals aren't defined solely by that sexual orientation.



After that MEGA Embarrasment over 20 years ago (one which would have finished any Conservative - and some have) Frank was given the benefit of the doubt by many . Did he totally wise up and put his Sexual outlook well apart from his Congressional Work (???) Well, possibly - but odds are after surviving that He figured he was Good for Anything in a Polarized Climate in a Liberal State. Possibly his views on Fannie/Freddie came because of his secure view on his staying power.
 
Apr 2, 2009 ... Fannie Mae still has not filed financial statements for 2005 and 2006 and ... to Congressman Barney Frank: "On November 15, 2004 Fannie Mae filed a ... abuse and corruption at these two GSEs while liberals in Congress, ...
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/apr/new
These new documents show that liberals in Congress were reckless when it came to the massive taxpayer liabilities related to Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Government officials at FHFA repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding fraud, abuse and corruption at these two GSEs while liberals in Congress, led by Barney Frank, blocked attempts to address the situation in a meaningful way."

and i am asking you point blank why you are blaming this on dems, when a republican led congress received a request from a republican president and it never got out of a republican committee. there is plenty of blame to go around, stop being such a partisan and wake the hell up. and oh, your link doesn't work.
 
Hmmm, could be because the Dems blocked it in committee. Seems the Dems were in the pockets of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, along with the National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors. Yep, dems were in the pockets of big business.

Seems like the one with the biggest hands dipping into pockets was your very own Barack Obama. After only four years in the Senate, he leap frogged John Kerry and became the number two recipient of Freddie and Fannie's campaign donations. The only bigger crook was Chris Dodd.

prove that dems blocked a republican committee.
 
and i am asking you point blank why you are blaming this on dems, when a republican led congress received a request from a republican president and it never got out of a republican committee. there is plenty of blame to go around, stop being such a partisan and wake the hell up. and oh, your link doesn't work.

Don't be obtuse. You know that a bill cannot get through the Senate without bipartisan support or a filibuster proof majority. Republicans had neither. Not one Demo voted for this bill in committee.
 
and i am asking you point blank why you are blaming this on dems, when a republican led congress received a request from a republican president and it never got out of a republican committee. there is plenty of blame to go around, stop being such a partisan and wake the hell up. and oh, your link doesn't work.

Sorry, this link worked for me. Maybe it will for you.
**************************************
Overall, these documents show that Congress was made aware of the massive problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the last six years. Yet liberals, led by Congressman Barney Frank, repeatedly blocked attempts to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For example, during a hearing on September 10, 2003, before the House Committee on Financial Services considering a Bush administration proposal to further regulate Fannie and Freddie, Rep. Frank stated: "I want to begin by saying that I am glad to consider the legislation, but I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this Apr 2, 2009 ... Fannie Mae still has not filed financial statements for 2005 and 2006 and ... to Congressman Barney Frank: "On November 15, 2004 Fannie Mae filed a ... abuse and corruption at these two GSEs while liberals in Congress, ...
New Documents Uncovered by Judicial Watch Show Congress Ignored Corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for Years | Judicial Watch
point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury."
 
Don't be obtuse. You know that a bill cannot get through the Senate without bipartisan support or a filibuster proof majority. Republicans had neither. Not one Demo voted for this bill in committee.

so what? they didn't need a dem vote. barney frank made a mistake about fannie and freddie...but republicans are certainly as much, if not more, to blame. to think otherwise is parisan beyond belief.

House Financial Services Committee
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward.

Barney Frank on CNBC on July 14, 2008.[51]In 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal, in response to accounting scandals, for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal, supported by the head of Fannie Mae, reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Frank stated, "These two entities...are not facing any kind of financial crisis.... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."[52] In 2003, Frank also stated what has been called his "famous dice roll":[53] "I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness [in the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that we have in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidised housing."[54]

Frank was criticized[who?] for campaign contributions totaling $42,350 between 1989 and 2008. Critics[who?] claim the donations from Fannie and Freddie influenced his support of their lending programs, and say that Frank did not play a strong enough role in reforming the institutions in the years leading up to the Economic crisis of 2008.[55] In 2006 a Fannie Mae representative stated in SEC filings that they "did not participate in large amounts of these non-traditional mortgages in 2004 and 2005."[56] In response to criticism, Frank said, “In 2004, it was Bush who started to push Fannie and Freddie into subprime mortgages, because they were boasting about how they were expanding homeownership for low-income people. And I said at the time, ‘Hey—(a) this is going to jeopardize their profitability, but (b) it’s going to put people in homes they can’t afford, and they’re gonna lose them.’” [5]

In 2009 Frank responded to what he called "wholly inaccurate efforts by Republicans to blame Democrats, and [me] in particular" for the subprime mortgage crisis, which is linked to the financial crisis of 2007–2009.[57] He outlined his efforts to reform these institutions and add regulations, but met resistance from Republicans, with the main exception being a bill with Republican Mike Oxley that died because of opposition from President Bush.[57] The 2005 bill included Frank objectives, which were to impose tighter regulation of Fannie and Freddie and new funds for rental housing. Frank and Mike Oxley achieved broad bipartisan support for the bill in the Financial Services Committee, and it passed the House. But the Senate never voted on the measure, in part because President Bush was likely to veto it. “If it had passed, that would have been one of the ways we could have reined in the bowling ball going downhill called housing,” Oxley told Frank. In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Lawrence B. Lindsey, a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush, wrote that Frank “is the only politician I know who has argued that we needed tighter rules that intentionally produce fewer homeowners and more renters.”[5] Once control shifted to the Democrats, Frank was able to help guide both the Federal Housing Reform Act (H.R. 1427) and the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act (H.R. 3915) to passage in 2007.[57] Frank also said that the Republican-led Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999, which repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 and removed the wall between commercial and investment banks, contributed to the financial meltdown.[57] Frank further stated that "during twelve years of Republican rule no reform was adopted regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2007, a few months after I became the Chairman, the House passed a strong reform bill; we sought to get the [Bush] administration’s approval to include it in the economic stimulus legislation in January 2008; and finally got it passed and onto President Bush’s desk in July 2008. Moreover, "we were able to adopt it in nineteen months, and we could have done it much quicker if the [Bush] administration had cooperated."[58]

Chair of the House Financial Services Committee
 
so what? they didn't need a dem vote. barney frank made a mistake about fannie and freddie...but republicans are certainly as much, if not more, to blame. to think otherwise is parisan beyond belief.

So what ??? Are you kidding ?? How could Republicans pass a bill in the Senate with no votes from the Dems ??? The bill passed in the House, but Republicans did not have a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate.

Congressional Facts 101 :roll:
 
After that MEGA Embarrasment over 20 years ago (one which would have finished any Conservative - and some have) Frank was given the benefit of the doubt by many . Did he totally wise up and put his Sexual outlook well apart from his Congressional Work (???) Well, possibly - but odds are after surviving that He figured he was Good for Anything in a Polarized Climate in a Liberal State. Possibly his views on Fannie/Freddie came because of his secure view on his staying power.

If his policies are so bad, how come literally every single time I see regressives discuss him, they talk about sucking ****?
 
it is, overhaul recommended by the bush administration, under a republican congress, went nowhere. gee........why are you pretending this was a dem caused problem?


wiki

Because the dems blocked Bills that would have corrected it
 
If his policies are so bad, how come literally every single time I see regressives discuss him, they talk about sucking ****?


Because his Resume is rather unique.
 
So what ??? Are you kidding ?? How could Republicans pass a bill in the Senate with no votes from the Dems ??? The bill passed in the House, but Republicans did not have a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate.

Congressional Facts 101 :roll:
What bill are you speaking of?
 
Speech given by President Bush Oct 12, 2002:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Thanks, for coming. Well, thanks for the warm welcome. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate your attendance to this very important conference. You see, we want everybody in America to own their own home. That's what we want. This is -- an ownership society is a compassionate society.

More and more people own their homes in America today. Two-thirds of all Americans own their homes, yet we have a problem here in America because few than half of the Hispanics and half the African Americans own the home. That's a homeownership gap. It's a -- it's a gap that we've got to work together to close for the good of our country, for the sake of a more hopeful future. We've got to work to knock down the barriers that have created a homeownership gap.

I set an ambitious goal. It's one that I believe we can achieve. It's a clear goal, that by the end of this decade we'll increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families. (Applause.)

Some may think that's a stretch. I don't think it is. I think it is realistic. I know we're going to have to work together to achieve it. But when we do our communities will be stronger and so will our economy. Achieving the goal is going to require some good policies out of Washington. And it's going to require a strong commitment from those of you involved in the housing industry.

Freddie Mae -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- I see the heads who are here; I want to thank you all for coming -- (laughter) -- have committed to provide more money for lenders. They've committed to help meet the shortage of capital available for minority home buyers.

Fannie Mae recently announced a $50 million program to develop 600 homes for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Franklin, I appreciate that commitment. They also announced $12.7 million investment in a condominium project in Harlem. It's the beginnings of a series of initiatives to help meet the goal of 5.5 million families. Franklin told me at the meeting where we kicked this office, he said, I promise you we will help, and he has, like many others in this room have done.

Freddie Mac recently began 25 initiatives around the country to dismantle barriers and create greater opportunities for homeownership. One of the programs is designed to help deserving families who have bad credit histories to qualify for homeownership loans. Freddie Mac is also working with the Department of Defense to promote construction and financing for housing for men and women in the military.

790 KABC: 2002 President Bush Speech Offering Road to Home Ownership
 
yup, Bush got sucked into the "ownership society" bit at first. his later attempts to fix the system weren't backed enough to break through near united Democrat opposition and a fair number of Republicans who were bought off / intimidated. when one member of the House gave a speech about the need to fix the risk in the system, for example, fannie mae sent out a mass-mailing in his district about how the representative in question wanted to kick poor people out in the streets.


frankly, i'm just glad you people are realizing that attempting to tilt economic activity in favor of the poor inevitably harms them; irrespective of whether it's democrats fault, or a bipartisan issue. can we stop doing it now?
 
yup, Bush got sucked into the "ownership society" bit at first. his later attempts to fix the system weren't backed enough to break through near united Democrat opposition and a fair number of Republicans who were bought off / intimidated. when one member of the House gave a speech about the need to fix the risk in the system, for example, fannie mae sent out a mass-mailing in his district about how the representative in question wanted to kick poor people out in the streets.


frankly, i'm just glad you people are realizing that attempting to tilt economic activity in favor of the poor inevitably harms them; irrespective of whether it's democrats fault, or a bipartisan issue. can we stop doing it now?

Shows who the real party of no is
 
Libertarians.
 
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