Sarah Palin fumbles on Fannie, Freddie

Chicago tribune ^ | Sept. 8 08 | Frank James

[Rennes Templar]

Will the pundits blow the blip up into a major story?

[dfwgator]

Will the pundits blow the blip up into a major story?

Only if it hurts Republicans.

[Para-Ord.45]

reference ping to bash leftists with

[Merlinator]

Oh no! She will lose those 7 battleground states now! I’m talking states #51-57 that Obama is campaigning so hard for.

[MNJohnnie]

More hysteric posturing by the same clowns who dismissed Obama’s “My Muslim faith” statement this weekend as a perfectly “normal speaking error”.

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

Wha do you expect? She’s just a girl. /s

[cookcounty]

She's DEAD on!

Fred Smith--

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae each receive $2.25 billion lines of credit with the U.S. Treasury. These special pipelines give the institutions an implied federal guarantee available to no other private sector competitors in the mortgage market. That protection makes them immune to the costs normally associated with riskier and riskier behavior.

oreover, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not required to pay state and local income taxes. In addition, the standard for how much money the government requires them to keep on hand in case homebuyers default on their mortgages is lower for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae than for fully private banks and thrifts.

The two corporations receive an estimated $10 billion a year in hidden taxpayer subsidies.

[Safetgiver]

They assume she means the taxpayers are funding Fannie....we are, as of today. When the Clintonistas took over their boards and gave themselves bonuses, I said four years ago “This does NOT bode well.” It was another way for Jamie
Gorelick and et al to rape the system, just as they did when Clinton was President.

[Titus-Maximus]

Talk to the bondholders who always said it was a government guarantee - which it now is. The bonds were purchased with that implicit backing.

This is nick picking, but she will get the scrutiny that Obama never got.

[Titus-Maximus]

Talk to the bondholders who always said it was a government guarantee - which it now is. The bonds were purchased with that implicit backing.

This is nit picking, but she will get the scrutiny that Obama never got.

[Mr Rogers]

Palin is, in practical terms, more accurate than her detractors.

[cincinnati65]

I guess Mr. Obama is confused too.

From his OWN POLICY STATEMENT FROM HIS CAMPAIGN WEBSITE:

"The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would use a small percentage of the profits of two government-sponsored housing agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to create thousands new units of affordable housing each year."

[upchuck]

As it turns out, it appears that federal dollars will be used to bail these corporations out.

This absolutely drives me crazy.

Pardon me but there's no such thing as "federal dollars." Without us the feds have NO money.

The correct, realistic, non-politically correct way of stating this is, "As it turns out, it appears that our taxpayer dollars will be used to bail these corporations out." Or, "As it turns out, it appears that our involuntarily taken tax dollars will be used to bail these corporations out."

[montag813]

The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies.

That is not true. The problem with them is that they operated in an area between public and private, which led to this new fiasco.

[BooyahPower]

and Obama’s response? Still giving him time so he can talk to his 300 advisors?

[beezdotcom]

I thought these were quasi-government/private companies. Not totally private.

I thought so too...I guess I better go find out why that would have been incorrect.

[weegee]

What do former FBI officials know about running banks (as opposed to robbing them) and why were so many Clintonistas on the board of directors?

[Sal]

Folks, there are going to be gaffes. Get used to it. Just a fact of life.

True enough, but this was a gaffe by the HuffNPuffs and ChiTrib. Sarah Palin, being a human being, may make a gaffe, but she hasn't yet.

[woofie]

Anyone remember this crook?

Fannie Mae Chairman and CEO Franklin D. Raines under Clinton

"Critics of the congressional housing package complain that we are now committing taxpayers to huge new outlays to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That view is wrong: Congressional inaction over the past 15 years had already committed taxpayers to the bailout."

Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal reviewed in his paper the coverage that it had been giving since 2001 to the rot inside these two entities.

Gigot also points out that, despite the rationale that we allegedly need these taxpayer-backed enterprises in order for those of modest incomes to get mortgages, in 2002, Fannie Mae "was able to pay no fewer than 21 of its executives a million dollars," and in 2003, its CEO, Franklin Raines, who was ousted for financial shenanigans at the firm, was paid $20 million. And, he left with a $25 million retirement package.

Consider, for starters, what all this tells us today about the man who promises to clean up Washington, Sen. "Change We Can Believe In" Barack Obama.

Raines is reported to be currently serving as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign on housing and mortgage issues.

Raines' predecessor, James Johnson, also the beneficiary of tens of millions in compensation running this sweet deal, where company executives share the risks with taxpayers but not the profits, was Obama's choice to head his vice president vetting team. After howling from the press, Johnson stepped aside.

read the whole article here:

http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=724

[JohnnyZ]

And this is peanuts to the unfunded social security liability that is only a few years away from bankrupting the country.

Pay no attention to that Ponzi Scheme behind the curtain!