Let’s just take stroll down memory lane and see who was doing what in Washington, oh say, about 5 years ago….

September 11, 2003
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

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

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.
…
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.

Remember this when Democrats try to blame President Bush and Republicans for the current economic fiasco.

And if that’s not enough, how about this:

Lehman Brothers collapse is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago.

Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs.

A group called the Center for Responsive Politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were Democrats and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama.

Hope and change, my friends… hope and change.

Now remember, he’s only been in the Senate four years, but he still managed to grab the No. 2 spot ahead of John Kerry — decades in the Senate — and Chris Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional Democrats and the Clinton White House, designed to make mortgages available to more people and, as it turns out, some people who couldn’t afford them

.
Surprise, surprise…

UPDATE: Since the media seems unconcerned with Obama’s affiliations with domestic terrorists and convicted criminals, maybe they’ll ask a few questions about Obama’s ties to the mortgage/financial crisis:

Don’t hold your breath, though…

UPDATE 2: More from Bloomberg:

But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.

Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.

Clinton, the 12th-ranked recipient of Fannie and Freddie PAC and employee contributions, has received more than $75,000 from the two enterprises and their employees. The private profit found its way back to the senators who killed the fix.

There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.

Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that’s worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess.

1. […] Who’s To Blame for the Current Financial Mess? So reads the title of this article by Texas Rainmaker.  If you are inclined to lay blame at the feet of the Bush administration, perhaps you should read the article.  Heck, you need to read the article anyway! Explore posts in the same categories: Politics […]

   Pingback by Who’s To Blame for the Current Financial Mess? « Old Soldier — 5:57 am
   

2. Uh, kind of hard to read. Spammed?

   Comment by sandy — 7:39 am
   

3. […] Of course, they had to say that. Democrats are the reason we’re in this fiasco today. They passed legislation designed to force banks into giving loans to folks who couldn’t repay them so they could pat themselves on the back and tout low-income and minority home ownership statistics . It’s all part of the socialist state design. Take from the producers and give to the non-producers. Redistribute wealth. […]

   Pingback by Texas Rainmaker » Throw The Bums Out — 4:57 pm
   

4. […] Of course, we already know who is really to blame. But that story wouldn’t fit the agenda of the liberals at the New York Times. […]

   Pingback by Texas Rainmaker » New York Times Downgraded from “Fishwrapper” to “Birdcage Lining” — 9:54 am
   

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