Posted on 09/08/2008 2:22:19 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stumbled this weekend when she commented on the federal takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Huffington Post "helpfully" pointed out her mistake to anyone who missed it the first time around.
Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies.
The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."
Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.
"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say."
- snip-
Palin just got a bit ahead of the facts. Now that the federal government has taken over the companies, taxpayers will likely be on the hook now for maybe hundreds of billions of dollars. Perhanps she was just looking ahead.
(Excerpt) Read more at swamppolitics.com ...
..also, technically, both Fannie and Freddie are GSE’s, Government Sponsored Enterprises. In addition to the bail out, each year they have access to about $2Billion in a standing line of credit from the U.S. Treasury Department. Line of credit paid for by, guess who, the US Taxpayer.
Maybe one of those extra seven states is home to the Nittaly Lions football team.
I’d say 100 billion dollars in taxpayer money is too expensive. Too damned expensive as a matter of fact. And it can all be traced to the Community Redevelopment Act. Congress needs what McCain and Palin will bring I think, they sure the hell need something.
If it had been Countrywide (whose customers include some rather prominent Democrats, by the way), yes it would have been a faux paux, but it was not...so Arianna and her Huffing Puffing foot soldiers need to do some boning up on the Freddy/Fanny Massacre themselves.
Except this one isn’t a gaffe.. see subsequent posts.
I heard today Demonrat Andrew Cuomo the son of the great “fatcheem” Mario cuomo had much to do with raising the cieling on the amount of loans and guarnetees that the feds would cover on these knowingly bad loans. any info?
When the same question was posed to BHObama, his response:
Fannie? Fannie got "back" and Freddie's Dead.....
She certainly has 
on the run!
The reason pracitcally nobody is critisizing the takeover/bailout is nobody can think of another solution.
The government was already on the hook for the money.
The alternative of letting both fail and plunging the economy into a deep recession may sound nice from a purists/libertarain standpoint, but not many people that actually live in the real work like the idea.
Both parties got us into this mess over several decades. The original premise of having a private instituion guranteed by the government was flawed because it didn’t take into accout the size Freddy and Fannie could grow to.
It looks like the people that owned stock in both are going to get screwed. Fine. No different that when any other company goes under.
Freddie/fannie was an key part of Bush’s “compassionate conservatism.” It’s another way for mccain to distance himself from Bush, along with spending and the value of the dollar.
Exactly. This mindset (especially the "socialize the risk" part) also reminds me of how the GOP came to lose the 2006 election. The change from that GOP to the one that McCain and Palin are now promising is certainly change that I can really believe in.
No stumble for Sarah here. She’s spot on that this is going to cost taxpayers plenty.
wonder if that rag pointed out obama’s “Joint Chiefs” brain fart..?
Point out Jim Johnson, one of Obama’s VP vetters was CEO of Fannie when they were lending money recklessly. She was absolutely correct in pointing out both are too expensive to taxpayers, as now the taxpayers are on the hook for a possible 5.3 TRILLION in mortgages that Fannie and Freddie hold. The wonderful banks dumped the worst mortgages on Fannie and Freddie before this happend, so total losses to the taxpayers could be in excess of $200 BILLION. If that is not too expensive, I don’t know what is.
Correct:
History
Fannie Mae was founded as a government agency in 1938 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal to provide liquidity to the mortgage market. For the next 30 years, Fannie Mae held a virtual monopoly on the secondary mortgage market in the United States.
In 1968, to remove the activity of Fannie Mae from the annual balance sheet of the federal budget, it was converted into a private corporation. Fannie Mae ceased to be the guarantor of government-issued mortgages, and that responsibility was transferred to the new Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae).
ex-CEO Mudd (son of THE Roger Mudd) will get $9.7 million severance along with a letter that he was dismissed WITHOUT cause.
former CEO Franklin Raines (former Clinton budget director) was convicted of manipulating earnings and fined $27 million.
SUCKS TO BE A RAT.
I also don’t see much mention of his “muslin faith” comment on TV Sunday! I didn’t take what she meant the way they did and I don’t think that most people did. It is going to be too expensive for us to bail them out.
Did these same economists and analysts pounce on the statement "...my Muslim Faith..."
I don't think so.
I would think that Obama has a lack of understanding of the difference between Christian and Muslim.
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