Fryingpan Politics
A sign of the times
by Bill Smith on fryingpanpolitics.blog.com
Editorial
The Democrats want to find someone else to blame for the economic crash.
Rep. Frank and company must know that they were the ones that caused the crash that stripped the world of nearly 20% of its total wealth. Now they are doing a 911 Commission type investigation dragging the bank presidents back to Washington to verbally beat them up some more. The Democrats need someone—anyone other than themselves to blame for the mess that they created.
Under Clinton, the Democratic Congress passed what they called the “Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).” The goal of that measure was to require banks to lend to small businesses and individuals that were not able to qualify under traditional criteria for loans. The banks lowered their down payment and credit score requirements but some people were still unable to get loans. Groups like ACORN filed suit against Citibank and Bank of America among others to force those banks to give home loans to those that had no chance what so ever of ever making the payments. Then Att. Obama’s signature was on some of those suits acting as the attorney for the plaintiffs.
The banks were cowards. Rather than doing what they should have and filing a suit in Federal Court to have the CRA declared unconstitutional, they started granting loans to anyone with a pulse.
To assist the banks, FANNIE MAE and FREDDI MAC, your friendly neighborhood government/private loan underwriters, guaranteed the loans under the CRA. Neither had enough money to carry the load so special investment products that combined the high risk loans with lower risk loans to sell to investors. The banks and Mae and Mac traded these products like hot potatoes trying not to be holding them when the bottom fell out of the economy.
When the loans started to go bad the Bush administration asked Congress to audit the two financial giants as early as 2005 right up to the spring of 2007. Rep. Frank and the Dems refused to allow that saying that they were watching and both institutions were fine. They refused to allow any audit. Mae fired one of the auditors that went public with the problem.
Despite the obvious failings of Mae and Mac, Obama selected Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff. Emanuel had been on the board of directors of Mac that had not notice the ship was sinking fast. Obama also named others in Mac and Mae to key positions in his administration.
Now that the economy has bottomed out, the Obama crew and the Dems in Congress are desperate for scapegoats. This week they will implement a 911 Commission style investigation to find someone upon whom they can plant the blame. This commission went to former Deputy Att. Gen. Gorelick to ask her how as a member of the 911 commission she kept her own skirts clean during the investigation. You may recall that she was the one that created the policy that threatened to fire any member of the FBI or CIA that shared information with the other agency. The commission found that the wall created by Gorelick was one of the major contributors to the CIA failing to uncover the threat posed by those that committed the 911 attack. However, she was able to avoid testifying before the commission as she should have been forced to do.
To further destroy the economy the Obama Administration is considering a reenactment of the CRA with more tax money. That is pure insanity throwing printed money after bad investments.
What ought to happen is that Frank and his fellow Congressmen and Senators that voted for the CRA and blocked any investigation into the mess should be frog walked out of Congress and prosecuted for fraud. This was a ponszi scheme that makes Madoff’s fraud look like the theft of milk money from a 3rd grader. Those that voted for the CRA are guilty of causing the greatest man made economic disaster in the history of the world.
That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Bill Smith is a senior writer for http://NFLDraftDog.com and edits http://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library/Contemporary/Author.cfm?AuthorID=1003.
