Don't Blame the Republicans for Bailout's Failure or its Cause!

by jwright~

(Another “Letter to the Editor” which was published on Tuesday, September 30, 2008)

Don’t Blame Republicans for Bailout’s Failure, or its Cause!

A bit more than 30 minutes into a 15-minute vote Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives it became apparent that nearly 100 Democrats voting in tandem with more than 130 Republicans had heard the loud voices of their constituents and voted against a $700-billion taxpayer funded bailout of financial institutions that previously made questionable mortgage loans to questionable applicants, all in the guise of “affordable housing.”

Following the vote, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, found the TV cameras and proceeded to blame failure of the legislation on the House Republicans, conveniently forgetting that her Democrats have a majority of the votes in the House and could have easily passed it without any Republican votes. What she also forgot were basic social graces; if you seek bipartisanship don’t poison a session prior to an important vote with a starkly partisan speech, hammering your opponents and then expect their cooperation.

As far as blame for this entire financial mess, it’s my opinion that its roots go back to 1977 when Democrat President Jimmy Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) into law. CRA prohibited lending institutions from “redlining” or discriminating against neighborhoods, in particular, high financial risk neighborhoods.

With those restrictions removed, Pandora’s box was opened to allow financial institutions to make questionable real estate loans, which coincidentally seems to be the big economic problem today.

Many institutions that refused to abide by CRA were threatened with federal lawsuit if they didn’t comply and make the questionable loans. Only in Socialist America, I guess?

So where does the real blame fall? On the 1977 Congress that enacted the CRA legislation? Certainly not on today’s Congress… this Democrat controlled Congress is seemingly “without sin.” Ask any of them.

Today in this era of overblown partisan bickering, sitting president George W. Bush and the Republicans are labeled the fall guys. Following him, it’s presidential contender Senator John McCain, R-AZ. Someone please tell me how anyone in their right mind can agree with that premise, especially when it was Senator McCain in 2005 who warned the country of the impending crisis featuring FannieMae and FreddieMac and was ridiculed by his Democrat Senate associates.?

Go online and find anything that Democrats Senator Christopher Dodd or Representative Barney Frank said in warning of their collapse. No, all you will find are positive statements about how strong the two agencies are. It’s pretty damning when you actually read their words.

For further evidence, please check out this link to a video filmed in the U.S. House, a C-Span filmed video of Democrat Representatives covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our current Economic Crisis…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=email

Unless you are willing to disbelieve what your eyes and ears tell you.


Jaq~