Posted on 03/18/2009 6:54:13 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Memory eventually fails us all, but apparently the decline strikes one party far more than the other.
In recent weeks, my friends across the aisle have expended a lot of breath proclaiming that the Democrats caused the present financial crisis by failing to pass legislation to regulate financial services companies in the years 1995 through 2006.
There is only small one problem with this story -- throughout this entire period the Republicans were in complete charge of the House and for the most critical years they controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.
In the House of Representatives, the majority party has almost unlimited power over the minority party. The majority party owns the committee chairmanships; it controls what bills come to a vote; and it is under no obligation to consider the ideas of the beleaguered minority. When the Republicans were in the majority they ruled with an iron first; it is no accident that Tom DeLay was known as "The Hammer."
That is why I find it particularly flattering the Republicans now claim that in the years 1995 to 2006 I personally possessed supernatural powers which enabled me to force mighty Republican leaders to do my bidding. Choose your comic book hero -- I was all of them.
I wish I had the power to force the Republican leadership to do my bidding! If I had had that power, I would have used it to block the impeachment of Bill Clinton, to stop the war in Iraq, to prevent large tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, and to stop government intervention into the private life of Terri Schiavo. Yet that power eluded me, and I was unable to stop those things.
According to the Republicans' misty memories of the period before 2007, I allegedly singlehandedly blocked their...
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
IF the MSM wasn’t Allowing that ... ummm ... errr ... to spew this stuff. If He was a GOP.. every word of his would have been trashed already.
Haven’t seen a LIAR like Bwaney Fwank since ... ummm .. John KERRY’s Campaign??
don’t know that I can be charitable enough to give huffpo a hit and look long enough to view the BS from bwany fwank.
You know it’s go to be good when its fwank’s kind of revisionist history though.
OK, how about SUPER LIPS????????
Notice the straw man argumentative style- I don’t recall anyone saying Dems are completely responsible- there was fraud on Wall Street and Main Street. Granted, Republicans haven’t been perfect, BUT Dems have been extraordinarily reckless in their protection of Fannie and Freddie. Fannie is so big that we cant give it “full faith and credit” protection, lest we ruin the market for Treasuries. The amount of leverage in this company was hedge fund like in its extreme. It will need more bailouts, of that I am certain.
"I'm getting vewwwy angwy!!!"
Barney does make some valid points, but the fact that Republican leadership was atrocious during the years 1995-2006 does not absolve Barney and the Democrats for their part in the financial crisis. Barney’s arguments are similar to a child’s, “But mommy! Johnny did it, too!”
Finally, this isn’t really about political parties. It’s about big government enemies of individual liberty versus freedom-loving, small government patriots. Although the Republican Party did have a numerical edge in the house and senate, small government conservatives were always a distinct minority.
The revisionist history barney spews is just plain silly. I guess the WSJ, Investor’s Business Daily and even the NY Times must have missed him trying to prevent bad mortgages by Fannie Mae.
Well, if anyone knows about spewing revisionism and ducking accountability, it’s Bawney.
While we are wishing, I wish I had the power to put the little faggot in jail where he belongs.
He could share a cell with Chris Dodd.
Fat Fwank has a point. Bush, the GOP, Hastert, Lott did nothing.
Why? Because they liked it too. Republicans might say they dislike big government, but once the big spending starts, they and theirs want a piece of the action.
In this case Realtors, land developers, NY stock exchange home builders, bankers, loan agents, city mayors who watched their tax flow increase.
George Bush wanted the ‘Opportunity Society’. Kind of like LBJ wanted the Great Society.
Bush never, ever, not once expended any political capital. Fwank is right. A few GOP tisk, tisk school marm quotes is not political action.
At best Republicans did nothing. I think they were for this, and said they were against it. ( I know, I know, hard to believe Republicans saying they are for/against something and then doing the opposite.)
Okay Barney, here you are in your favorite superhero mode:
The one with the great deal of disconnect and his determination to play nice, is someone that I was proud to support on on one hand and on the other hand felt let down by him, George W. Bush.
I think this heterophobic imbecile has consumed excessive amounts of tainted GatorAIDS and has lost his grip on Reality.
The amazing thing is this:
The democrats have controlled Congress since January 2007. In a nutshell, that is precisely when the crisis began. Arguably, the threat of oversight action indicated in the hearings discussed by Frank, kept the banking industry in some measure of check. Once Frank was in charge, the banking industry knew that there would be NO regulation of banks and that Bush would have zero change of implementing further changes advocated prior to that time.
This adds to the absurdity of Obama standing before the Congress this past month and saying that he inheirited these problems. Upon that line of the speech, the democrats who created the problem stood up and gave a standing ovation. It was the height of absurdity.
I’d like to stick a white hot poker up his a$$ and ruin his sex life!
LLS
The Syph is taking it’s toll on Barney.
I heard it differently Bawney. I heard democrats lied to protect their buddies & lovers cooking the books and then refused regulations of any kind saying it was racist.
Bill Clinton to Chris Cuomo that Democrats for years have been resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Bawney? Bill is a republican now?
Barney Frank said there was nothing wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac September 11, 2003:
These two entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis, Barney Frank, 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.
Gee Bawney, where was Moses to fill you in?
Frank spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.
Three years later, President Clintons Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of todays economic crisis.
Rep. Barney Frank described the "arrangement" at a committee hearing on GSE reform in 2003:
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played a very useful role in helping to make housing more affordable . . . a mission that this Congress has given them in return for some of the arrangements which are of some benefit to them to focus on affordable housing."
Franklin Raines, a Democrat and obama buddy misrepresented $11 billion in Fannie Maes accounting system in order to game the system so that he and other senior executives could collect multi-million dollar bonuses. Fannie Mae was fined some $500 million for the violations.
2004: At a dramatic hearing in Richard Bakers subcommittee, Fannies chair, Franklin Raines, stood by the companys accounting, claiming that Fannie was being victimized by an overzealous regulator.
2005 offering conciliatory statements and suggesting that they had no serious problems with the regulatory proposals that Congress was then contemplating, the GSEs were clearly alarmed by the idea that their portfolios might be limited or reduced. Fannie and Freddie and their constituent support groupsthe homebuilders and the realtors, among othersmade clear that they would fight limitations on GSE portfolios, and Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats made clear that they, too, would oppose any effort to limit this aspect of the GSEs operations.
2004 Congressional hearing about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Maxine Waters:
Through nearly a dozen hearings, we were frankly trying to fix something that wasnt broke. Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Franklin Raines.
Bawney playing the race card 2008; "They (republicans) get to take things out on poor people." "Let's be honest: The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn't hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people."
Bawney 2008; Some were misled, others took part in the deception. There were people, for instance, who lied about their incomes.
But we have made a mistake in this society. (who you talkin' 'bout WE bawney?) The assumption that everybody can be a homeowner is wrong. We pushed and encouraged people into home ownership - people who, in some cases, weren't ready for it. You can't act on wishes that are unrealistic without having negative consequences.
So Bawney, you saying you made it possible for people to buy homes they could not afford? Now your new policy is they should qualify? But for now taxpayers must foot the bill for your mistake?
2006; Maxine Waters and Rep. Robert Ney today overwhelmingly passed H.R. 5121, the Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2006. H.R. 5121 will revitalize the 72-year-old U.S. Federal Housing Administration (FHA), enabling it to make home ownership more accessible to millions of moderate to low-income American families.
Waters, This legislation is going to give Americansespecially the people of California Watts areamore flexibility. It is going to plant the dreams of homeownership on a solid foundation if taxpayer dollars, and instead of paying thousands of dollars a year in rent,taxpayers will foot the bill in trillions, more people will know the joy of taking that same money and putting it toward anything but their own home.
I changed the wording. Hee! H.R. 5121 expanded the FHA limits for Maxine Waters district with median home prices of $515,000 the limit was $363,000. H.R.1852 - Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2007 Sponsor: Maxine Waters / 110th Congress No 3% down required.
Pay to Play for passing the bill, Waters received total of 109,650 from Real estate agents, Mortgage bankers and brokers.
Bawney Fwank received $206,986 from Mortgage bankers, brokers,Real estate agents and Minority/Ethnic Groups
Convicted and jailed for life.
Frank would have a ball, Dodd not so much.
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