Christian Coalition of America -- Capitol Hill Update
On Tuesday the two Democrat politicians (Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank) and the two gigantic federally-subsidized housing agencies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) most responsible for the stock market crash the bursting of the housing bubble and the Great Recession won yet another victory (against the American people).
Senator John McCain the Republican presidential candidate who lost to Barack Obama in 2008 introduced an amendment to the financial regulatory-reform bill being debated on the Senate floor this week which would have reformed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which have already received $145 billion in bail-out money from American taxpayers. These were the two government-owned agencies which subsidized mortgage borrowers who could not afford to buy homes and which are now subsidizing these home-owners to avoid foreclosure.
Todays The Wall Street Journal editorializes that: Thanks to his own sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide Financial -- a leading Fannie business partner -- Mr. Dodd isnt running for reelection. Senator Dodds partner-in-crime and his counterpart in the House of Representatives Congressman Barney Frank Chairman of the Financial Services Committee whines and blusters that the housing crises was not due to his lack of oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
But yet both Dodd and Frank were in the vanguard of prolificate big-spending Members of Congress forcing these tax-subsidized and now government-owned bureaucracies to give mortgage loans -- many without downpayments and very low interest rates -- to borrowerers who had no ability to pay back the loans.
As a result the American people have already ponied up $145 billion with hundreds of billions of dollars yet to come from the hard-working American taxpayers because of the dereliction of duty by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and indeed the president of their party.
Every Republican Senator voted for the McCain amendment to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and only two Democrats voted with the Republicans as Senator McCains commonsense amendment was defeated by a margin of 56-43.
These 56 Democrats are going to have to face American voters explaining why they voted against an amendment which would have protected the American taxpayer by -- as The Wall Street Journal wrote today -- shrink(ing) the two mortgage giants rais(ing) their underwriting and capital standards cap(ping) the taxpayer losses (now $145 billion and counting) and eventually shut(ting) down the failed enterprises. Thats a whole lot of Democrat-explaining to do.
