Meet Barney Frank, Chairman of the powerful House Services Financial Committee , a tax and spend far-left liberal from Massachusetts …
Maintained a gay relationship with a Fannie Mae executive reportedly charged with reducing Fannie Mae’s regulatory and core capital requirements; increasing Fannie Mae’s purchase caps; increasing the purchase of “affordable housing loans” using relaxed loan standards that allowed borrowers to count alimony and welfare payments as normal, repeatable income; and expanding the type of loan products that Fannie Mae was able to their Congressional Charter.
Over the years, resisted any increased regulation of Fannie Mae; even that proposed by President Bill Clinton, Senator John McCain and other Senators and most famously, Alan Greenspan who thought that the systemic risk of the GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac represented a troublesome increasing systemic risk.
And now, in his own words, Representative Barney Frank, in response to CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo’s question:
Bartiromo: “A lot of things to pay for here and a second stimulus is being talked about at 300 BILLION dollars. If, in fact, we were to see something like that move forward, are you going to encourage Senator Obama and Senator McCain to change their tax and spending plans to pay for all this?”
Frank: “… My encouraging will probably have more impact on Senator Obama than Senator McCain.
“…at this point their needs to be an immediate increase in spending and I think this is a time when deficit fear has to take a second seat.”
“… yes, I believe later on that there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think that there are a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of this money.”
More spending?
This is like treating a heart failure patient suffering from fluid overload by demanding that they drink more liquids.
Tax the rich?
The far-left democrat mantra borne out of a Marxist doctrine and used to incite class warfare and envy as recommended by Marxist activists like Saul Alinsky whose teachings formed the core of Barack Obama’s community organizer training.
See for yourself …
Blame Game: The fight is on …
In addition to his tax and spend policies, Barney Frank is engaged in an on-going battle with respect to his handling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform legislation.
“House Republicans Urge Justice Department to Investigate Role of Fannie, Freddie in Current Crisis”
“On October 21, 2008, Congressman Spencer Bachus, Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, joined other House Republicans in requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) examine the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the current financial crisis as part of DOJ’s ongoing “Operation Malicious Mortgage” investigation. Republicans called for the probe to include the extent to which the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) contributed to the mortgage meltdown.”
Republicans also urged the DOJ to adopt a more focused effort to investigate mortgage-related fraud allegations nationwide.” Click here for a copy of the letter.
Barney Frank fires back …
“House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), released the following statement in response to a letter sent by Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-AL) along with other Republicans to the Justice Department regarding the role of the GSEs in the financial crisis:
“In an unusual event, even by this year’s standards, House Republicans appear to be demanding a criminal investigation of their failure to legislate.
In the letter to Attorney General Mukasey, House Republicans cite among other things the fact that no legislation was adopted ‘for years’ to reform the GSEs. The record is very clear: the Republicans controlled Congress from 1995 – 2006, and that is the period in which the absence of regulation into which they want a criminal investigation occurred.”
“According to the release, regulatory legislation was thwarted by Democrats but in fact, no regulation came to the Senate floor during the years of Republican rule and only one bill passed the Republican House – and that bill had majority Democratic support.
“The Republican demand that their legislative record of non-action be investigated appears to be the political equivalent of the note left to the police by serial offenders: stop me before I do not legislate again.” <Source: To read the full Barney Frank release in context, it can be found here.>
The truth: both sides had their hands out and were complicit in allowing the special interests to dictate policy …
While it is true that both sides were complicit in allowing the lobbyists and others to dictate legislative policy, the GSEs were a democrat invention and certain Congressional democrats used the GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) as their own personal “affordable housing” piggybank to assure that their home districts received the benefits from loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and which were underwritten on reduced credit standards. All of the major executives of the GSE’s were democrats – many having earned tens of millions of dollars while their organizations lost BILLIONS.
In addition, the democrats were shoveling public money into “community organizations” such ACORN (which now stands accused of participating in voter registration fraud as well as other crimes) which promoted the relaxation of credit standards.
Considering that far-left Marxist radical William Ayers was all about revolution, the re-distribution of wealth, affordable housing and politicizing education, his actions now fit perfectly with Barack Obama’s actions while a community organizer on behalf of ACORN. Considering the ACORN was willing to bring about a revolution, perhaps it is not so far-fetched that they would knowingly commit voter registration and election fraud – because it was to support their radical cause.
What can YOU do?
Do not vote for Congressional democrats who have already proved to be as much a problem as this wayward administration.
Do not vote for Barack Obama who seems to be strongly associated with socialistic ideas such as “wealth redistribution” and “affordable housing” for those who cannot afford home loans.
It is time to end the corruption and the influence of special interests on Congress. The Bush Administration is history, so that matter is no longer of concern. Let us look forward to those who are strong enough to stand up to special interests and assist the United States in its recovery efforts.
Demand accountability.
-- steve
P.S. Most of these calls for investigations and reform is likely to fade into the background after the election and will be ignored until the next democrat/Republican match-up. And should the democrats continue to have a majority, you can bet that all financial and ethical lapses by democrats will be buried for the next four years.
Quote of the day: “The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.” -- Paul Valery
A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…
The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
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