Barney Frank: Blaming Democrats For Credit Crisis is Racist

[Human]

Okay!!! To the Democrats; ARE you Sure that you are not WORKING for the other side "As in chavez and his group trying to bring down this economy"?

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http://www.bucksright.com/barney-frank-bla...-is-racist-1620

 

Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 10:42 am

 

Democrat Congressman Barney Frank, responsible for oversight of the banking industry during the greatest financial sector collapse in modern history, says it’s racist to blame Democrats for the collapse caused by Democrat mandates that loans be given to people who could not pay them back.

 

Ironically, in using the race card to explain away his responsibility for the current economic crisis, he shows exactly how the Democrats were able to derail numerous attempts by Republicans to reform and reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

 

“They get to take things out on poor people,” Frank said at a mortgage foreclosure symposium in Boston. “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.”

 

That’s exactly the tactic Democrats used to derail any attempt at sub-prime mortgage reform. When President Bush tried to reform the system in 2003, when Congressional Republicans tried to beef up the role of the regulator in 2004, and when John McCain proposed greater regulation in 2005 they were beaten back by false claims of “racism” by Democrats.

 

Frank said Republicans controlled Congress for 12 years and passed no regulation, while Democrats passed a Bush administration Fannie and Freddie regulation package since gaining control of the House and Senate in January 1997.

 

“If I could have stopped a Republican bill during the Bush years, I would have started with the war in Iraq. Then I would have gone to the Patriot Act. Then I would have gone on to the hundreds of millions in tax cuts,” said Frank, to applause from the audience.

 

Republicans were stymied in their attempts to pass regulations by Democrats consistently calling attempts to do so “racist.”

[Guest EG]

This article was written in the Sept. 11, 2003 issue of the NY Times. It talks about the Bush administrations proposed effort to start a new regulatory agency to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The effort to oversee Fannie and Freddie was met with strong opposition by Rep. Barnie Frank and Rep Charles Shumer ( the guy that said americans don't care about pork in legislation). This article closes the argument on who is really responsible for this mess we are in. Just imagine if we had oversight from 2003 to 2008, how much better of an economy would we be in now??

 

 

National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

 

''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.

 

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...mp;pagewanted=2

[Luke_Wilbur]

This another example how fault should be blamed on both sides aisle. Republicans always use Barney Frank as a punching bag. But they fail to mention how they promised to fillibuster the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007. A Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) might have stemmed this financial catastrophe. Congress was run by the GOP for the last 4 years of Clinton administration and 6 of the 8 of Bush administration. House passed a GSE reform bill in 2005 In my opinion there was way to loose lending practices by Sub prime institutions, Greenspan should never had kept the interest rates down that low. He made the same mistake with the Tech bubble. Also, there was way to little regulation in the hedge fund market. Both sides also blame the S.E.C, but they never give it the powers it really needs. You need to also understand how Phill Graham’s "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made loans more accessible to lower-income borrowers. Then you need to understand the Phil Graham's Enron Loophole provision in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Which basically deregulated energy trading causing high gas prices in 2007. I personally think everyone should get a 4.7 percent interest on the mortgage. That would make everyone happy and possibly stimulate our economy.

 

http://mediamatters.org/items/200902190010

 

According to Media Matters

 

In 2005, Frank, then the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, worked with committee chairman Rep. Michael Oxley (R-OH) on the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005, which would have established the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to replace the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) as overseer of the activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After voting for the bill in committee, Frank voted against final passage of the bill on the House floor, stating that he was doing so because an amendment to the bill on the House floor imposed restrictions on the kinds of nonprofit organizations that could receive funding under the bill.

Edited February 20, 2009 by Luke_Wilbur