First you must read Robert Bidinotto’s synopsis here:
While Barack Obama was getting campaign contributions from Fannie Mae’s Franklin Raines, John McCain was sounding the alarm about the crisis to come and trying to do something about it. On May 25, 2006, McCain spoke on the floor of the Senate on behalf of his proposed Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005:
Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation
Robert’s done the best collection of pertinent links, after poking through those please read Lee Cary’s piece on the Obama/Daley housing debacle in Chicago at the American Thinker.
;”>”Today, he claimed that the Congressional stimulus package was his idea. That’s news to those of us in Congress who supported it. Senator Obama didn’t even show up to vote.
Before you view this remember that the Dems have been in control of congress in the two years leading up to the latest financial debacle. Remember that Joe Biden’s committee should have prevented this, but instead encouraged it. Remember that Barack Obama’s favorite housing advisor is Franklin D. Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae who got out before the community outreach bad loan stack of cards collapsed. Remember that when the bad news hit Wall St yesterday that Obama was enroute to hobnob with Hollywood Highrollers.
John McCain’s 8 part economic plan, “Jobs for America” can be found here.
Here’s John speaking in Ohio today:
Transcript:
John McCain
Remarks
Vienna, OH
September 16, 2008
John McCain: “We’ve seen a telling moment in this campaign today. Senator Obama saw an economic crisis, and he’s found a political opportunity. My friends, this is not a time for political opportunism; this is a time for leadership.
“Too often, we hear people say America’s in decline. I reject that. I believe America’s best days are ahead of us. Governor Palin and I are going to reform Wall Street. We’re going to reform Washington. I’m going to fight for you, and I’m going to lead our nation forward in the greatest periods of prosperity in its history.
“And let’s have some straight talk. Senator Obama is not interested in the politics of hope, he’s interested in his political future and that’s why he is hurling in insults and making up facts about his record.
“Today, he claimed that the Congressional stimulus package was his idea. That’s news to those of us in Congress who supported it. Senator Obama didn’t even show up to vote.
“He talks a tough game on the financial crisis, but the facts tell a different story. Senator Obama took more money from Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac than anyone but the chairman of the committee they answer to, and he put Fannie Mae’s CEO, who helped create this problem in charge of finding his Vice President. That’s not change, that’s what’s broken in Washington.
“He talked about siding with the people, siding with the people, just before he flew off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbara Streisand and his celebrity friends. Let me tell you, my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than here, with the working men and women of Ohio. I’m going to fight for you and together we’re going to win in November.”
More on who really created the crisis at Hot Air UPDATE: Here’s Chuckie Schumer and Jesse Jackson teaming up back in 2001 to help create this mess can you say “community organizer?” Under the guise of stopping “predatory lending practices” Obama also participated in legislation like this in 2000. These programs supposedly stiffened controls, but at the same time took away all profitability from higher risk loans. By making it mandatory to treat risky borrowers just like borrowers with good credit through neighborhood HOME and HELP projects they created this crisis.
From the Chicago Tribune, 10-1-2000:
The senator believes that these inclusions will help reduce the number of foreclosures that have occurred in the state. The senator stated that “foreclosures started by subprime lenders in the Chicagoland area increased from 131 in 1993 to 4,958 in 1999, an increase of more than 3,600 percent.”
The senator obtained his foreclosure information from the National Training and Information Center, a non-profit organization in Chicago that does research on housing and other community related issues, including lending and neighborhood safety. It also provides training for those interested in how to do community organizing.
The NTIC currently also works with several affiliate groups, including the Indianapolis-based Organization for a New Eastside which compiles information that it receives from borrowers about their particular lending issues, as well as provides them with education, counseling and advocacy. O.N.E provides no funding to borrowers, though it refers them to local lenders and credit unions after counseling.
O.N.E recently took on the plight of a local family that felt it had been victimized during the purchasing of its home. The organization went to the local branch of the lender for a protest rally, demanding that the loan be looked at again.
So how can I say that when supposedly they were just worried about predatory lending practices and protecting borrowers? One of the things they enforced against was mandatory credit insurance for high risk loans. Without that they guaranteed more foreclosures even though they were supposedly preventing them.
UPDATE:Boston Globe reminds us of the other housing iniatives of Barack Obama UPDATE: Who Supports Barack Obama’s Amazing fund raising abilities? Investment Bankers. UPDATE: McCain Called for reform two years ago, See HERE. UPDATE: Just a reminder that Republicans were calling for oversight of Freddie and Fannie five years ago but were blocked repeatedly by Democrats in Congress:
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, 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.”
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.
”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.
Barack Obama is the second biggest recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac money during the last ten years, and he’s only been in Washington for four years… is this Change, or the same old corruption? Story at Little Green Footballs.
Recent stories have him raising 66 Million dollars in August — so just who else bought Barry? It’s time to follow the money.
With the questionable home deal with convicted Felon Tony Rezko, and the several years he spent working for “affordable housing” as a community organizer he can’t claim ignorance on what’s going on in financial markets today.
Many of these bad loans bundled together into bad investment vehicles are what’s causing the problems we see now. They came as a result of community outreach and community organizers who crafted programs with banks to lower loan approval hurdles to “disadvantaged borrowers.” Good fiscal practice is just that, so the banks who went overboard on these programs are the ones feeling the pinch now.
Also note that the former CEO of Fannie Mae, who engineered the community outreach defaulted loans debacle is now Barack Obama’s favorite housing advisor. Is this surreal, or just a big freaking coincidence? Did he warn about the earnings mistatement in 2006 because he knew of all the bad loans in system before he left, or because he made an educated guess? You decide.
I highly recommend this post at Neocon Latina — it’s the best collection of the known Marxist influences in Barack Obama’s life that I’ve seen. From the post:
3. Then there is the issue of Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, who was an open member of the Communist Party USA. In his autobiography “Dreams From My Father,” Obama describes Mr. Davis as “a poet” who was full of “hard-earned knowledge.”
4. Next there is Obama’s time as a “community organizer” — a “profession” invented by the Marxist, Saul Alinsky. The Wikipedia entry on Alinsky notes that in his seminal work, “Rules For Radicals,” Alinsky explained that “community organizing” was actually the first step towards Marxist revolution:
Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system . . . .
And make no mistake, Obama was a devotee of the Alinsky method, as was recently confirmed by Alinsky’s son. Obama also contributed a chapter to a book entitled, “After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois.” You can view it here. And Obama also taught workshops on the Alinsky method.
Entrusting the future of the US economy to someone with those roots would be disastrous at this time.
