Stand back, political diatribe coming through....
So as the Government prepares to bail out the failing insurance group AIG, as it has bailed out the mortgage firms Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac I think that I need to share some truths as both parties try to spin this around. And here are some facts:
--On Sunday the government completely took over the two government-sponsored enterprises, and we've returned to our data to bring you the updates, this time providing a list of all 354 lawmakers who have gotten money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (in July we posted the top 25). These totals are based on data released electronically from the FEC on Sept. 2 and include contributions to lawmakers' leadership PACs and candidate committees from the floundering companies' PACs and employees. Current members of Congress have received a total of $4.8 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with Democrats collecting 57 percent of that. This week we also wrote about how much money lawmakers had invested of their own money in the companies last year--a total of up to $1.7 million.
All Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008
Name Office State Party Grand Total Total from
PACs Total from
Individuals
Dodd, Christopher J S CT D $165,400 $48,500 $116,900
Obama, Barack S IL D $126,349 $6,000 $120,349
Kerry, John S MA D $111,000 $2,000 $109,000
Bennett, Robert F S UT R $107,999 $71,499 $36,500
Bachus, Spencer H AL R $103,300 $70,500 $32,800
Blunt, Roy H MO R $96,950 $78,500 $18,450
Kanjorski, Paul E H PA D $96,000 $57,500 $38,500
Bond, Christopher S 'Kit' S MO R $95,400 $64,000 $31,400
Shelby, Richard C S AL R $80,000 $23,000 $57,000
Reed, Jack S RI D $78,250 $43,500 $34,750
Reid, Harry S NV D $77,000 $60,500 $16,500
Clinton, Hillary S NY D $76,050 $8,000 $68,050
Davis, Tom H VA R $75,499 $13,999 $61,500
Boehner, John H OH R $67,750 $60,500 $7,250
Conrad, Kent S ND D $64,491 $22,000 $42,491
Reynolds, Tom H NY R $62,200 $53,000 $9,200
Johnson, Tim S SD D $61,000 $20,000 $41,000
Pelosi, Nancy H CA D $56,250 $47,000 $9,250
Carper, Tom S DE D $55,889 $31,350 $24,539
Hoyer, Steny H H MD D $55,500 $51,500 $4,000
Pryce, Deborah H OH R $55,500 $45,000 $10,500
Emanuel, Rahm H IL D $51,750 $16,000 $35,750
Isakson, Johnny S GA R $49,200 $35,500 $13,700
Cantor, Eric H VA R $48,500 $46,500 $2,000
Crapo, Mike S ID R $47,250 $40,500 $6,750
Frank, Barney H MA D $42,350 $30,500 $11,850
Oh really?
-- The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008_passed by the United States Congress on July 24, 2008 and signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2008_enabled expanded regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the newly established FHFA, and gave the U.S. Treasury the authority to advance funds for the purpose of stabilizing Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac, limited only by the amount of debt that the entire federal government is permitted by law to commit to. The law raised the Treasury's debt ceiling by US$ 800 billion, to a total of US$ 10.7 trillion, in anticipation of the potential need for the Treasury to have the flexibility to support Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or the Federal Home Loan Banks.[12][13][14]
How did this happen? How did this happen? Let me tell you how it happened, which is fair since now we are all paying for the profit of a few people and the benefit of a few Democrats.
--On November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One of the effects of the repeal was to allow commercial and investment banks to consolidate. Some economists have criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.[7][8]
The repeal enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities. Citigroup played a major part in the repeal. Then called Citicorp, the company merged with Travelers Insurance company the year before using loopholes in Glass-Steagall that allowed for temporary exemptions. With lobbying led by Roger Levy, the "finance, insurance and real estate industries together are regularly the largest campaign contributors and biggest spenders on lobbying of all business sectors [in 1999]. They laid out more than $200 million for lobbying in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics..." These industries succeeded in their two decades long effort to repeal the act.[9]
The banking industry had been seeking the repeal of Glass-Steagall since at least the 1980's. In 1987 the Congressional Research Service prepared a report which explored the case for preserving Glass-Steagall and the case against preserving the act.
Oh really? Really?
By the way, would it interest you to learn that in 2005 there was a bill to create a regulatory committee to oversee Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae to ensure these things never happened (HR 1461, to be precise)? To ensure that they would not go bankrupt and drag the economy and our government down with them?
You know a regulatory committee? Well, despite what Barack Obama and Company would tell you? It wasn't the Republicans who voted that oversight on Wall Street down was it?
Well, holy shit.
Why wouldn't the Democrats want to prevent the Regulations that they now demand and claim the Republicans denied?
First of all, let's see what Obama said to Keith Olbermann when asked about it?
OBAMA: Well, I don't think it's going to be $5 trillion. That's the amount of debt that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are holding. But a lot of those are good mortgages. People are paying them. We are going to see some losses. Taxpayers are going to take a hit. How big it is, we don't yet know.
And I have to be fair on this one. Republicans and Democrats I think in Congress did not pay enough attention to the structural problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which was, they are quasi public, quasi private institutions. They are making big profits and their CEOs are taking in big bonuses when times are good. But there is this implicit federal guarantee when times are bad.
And that was a structural problem that needs to be fixed.
But the problem of not regulating the financial markets effectively generally, not seeing that the subprime mortgage crisis was leading to a mess, not updating some of our financial regulations since the 1930s, that's been, I think, an example of the neglect on the part of the Bush administration over the last eight years whose view is basically anything goes and the government just has to stay out of the way. That has ironically hurt the market and one of the things we have got to rediscover is a little bit of well-applied regulation and transparency and accountability actually helps the market, helps the economy grow. And that's what I want to restore when I'm president.
Really? The guy who votes with his fellow Dems 97% of the time is going to push this bill through? The goddamned bill that his party blocked, and enjoyed the benefits of it being blocked? He's going to restore this?
Bullshit!
Let's be honest, it was the Democrats during the Clinton years and after who passed legislation, and helped to enable these companies to make high risk, subprime loans to people who could never pay them back! And now here we are! Blaming everyone but the people who removed the regulations in the first goddamned place!
Under the watch of the Clintons even as one of their lackies Franklin Raines loots Fannie Mae after being made the head of it for 100 million dollars, steers it further into high risk ventures, and pays a 400 million dollar fine to the SEC, and the Clintons and their minions made a ton of money?
They guide (force) Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac into buying more low income high risk mortgages! Even as the company is selling off debt to Countrywide which only was saved by Bank of America to prevent bankruptcy!
Good job, guys!
Link: http://perspectives.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=186294&forum_id=91
Here's another: http://atangledweb.squarespace.com/httpatangledwebsquarespace/fannie-mae-collapse-or-the-democrat-swindle-of-the-us-taxpay.html
Wow. Good thing, the Democrats are here to keep corporations in line!
Here's another bit of news I found.
This is a long and complicated story about how Obama backers were behind the mortgage industry meltdown. It hast to start some where, so lets start with a well known Chicago name Penny Pritzker. It starts with a bank failure.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for the 1,406 people who lost much of their life savings when Superior Bank of Chicago went belly up in 2001 with over $1 billion in insured and uninsured deposits. This collapse came amid harsh criticism of how Superior's owners promoted sub-prime home mortgages. As part of a settlement, the owners paid $100 million and agreed to pay another $335 million over 15 years at no interest.
The uninsured depositors were dealt another blow recently when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision to put any recovered money toward the debt that the bank owners owe the federal government before the depositors get anything.
But this seven-year-old bank failure has relevance in another way today, since the chair of Superior's board for five years was Penny Pritzker, a member of one of America's richest families and the current Finance Chair for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the same candidate who has lashed out against predatory lending.
Well, sumbitch.
Oh, you know something else? It seems Fannie Mae gave a bunch of money to ACORN, a rant for another day let's just say they have some problems with a little thing I call 'Voter Fraud'.
And they also had a lawyer named Barack Obama, who also by the way? Gave them money for helping for to get the vote out to the tune of 80,000 dollars! Which by the way was hid and buried deep in the books of ACORN, I wonder why?
Here's another fact:
During Obama's time on the Woods Funds ACORN received grants of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), and $40,000 (2002) from the Woods Fund. (Obama in the early 1990's helped train ACORN organizers and later served as counsel in 1995 for ACORN in a "motor voter" registration lawsuit.) And ACORN certainly appreciated whatever assistance Obama afforded the radical organization over the years.
Goddamn.
Good thing, the Democrats are not all about corporate greed or I would be concerned. It's okay to help the poor if you can, I don't know, rip them off while you're at it?
I mean you're not paying for it, the Taxpayer is. I am, you are, that guy is, Obama isn't.
Franklin Raines, CEO: $90,128,761 (1998-2003)
Jamie Gorelick, vice-chair: $26,466,834 (1998-2003)
Jim Johnson, CEO: $21,000,000 (1998 alone)
Look up these names in Wikipedia, and find the goddamned links.
And then tell me how Obama and his Democrats can blast anyone when he took $126,000.00 dollars of campaign money from these people he now condemns!
Yeah, I know.
So as the Government prepares to bail out the failing insurance group AIG, as it has bailed out the mortgage firms Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac I think that I need to share some truths as both parties try to spin this around. And here are some facts:
--On Sunday the government completely took over the two government-sponsored enterprises, and we've returned to our data to bring you the updates, this time providing a list of all 354 lawmakers who have gotten money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (in July we posted the top 25). These totals are based on data released electronically from the FEC on Sept. 2 and include contributions to lawmakers' leadership PACs and candidate committees from the floundering companies' PACs and employees. Current members of Congress have received a total of $4.8 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with Democrats collecting 57 percent of that. This week we also wrote about how much money lawmakers had invested of their own money in the companies last year--a total of up to $1.7 million.
All Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008
Name Office State Party Grand Total Total from
PACs Total from
Individuals
Dodd, Christopher J S CT D $165,400 $48,500 $116,900
Obama, Barack S IL D $126,349 $6,000 $120,349
Kerry, John S MA D $111,000 $2,000 $109,000
Bennett, Robert F S UT R $107,999 $71,499 $36,500
Bachus, Spencer H AL R $103,300 $70,500 $32,800
Blunt, Roy H MO R $96,950 $78,500 $18,450
Kanjorski, Paul E H PA D $96,000 $57,500 $38,500
Bond, Christopher S 'Kit' S MO R $95,400 $64,000 $31,400
Shelby, Richard C S AL R $80,000 $23,000 $57,000
Reed, Jack S RI D $78,250 $43,500 $34,750
Reid, Harry S NV D $77,000 $60,500 $16,500
Clinton, Hillary S NY D $76,050 $8,000 $68,050
Davis, Tom H VA R $75,499 $13,999 $61,500
Boehner, John H OH R $67,750 $60,500 $7,250
Conrad, Kent S ND D $64,491 $22,000 $42,491
Reynolds, Tom H NY R $62,200 $53,000 $9,200
Johnson, Tim S SD D $61,000 $20,000 $41,000
Pelosi, Nancy H CA D $56,250 $47,000 $9,250
Carper, Tom S DE D $55,889 $31,350 $24,539
Hoyer, Steny H H MD D $55,500 $51,500 $4,000
Pryce, Deborah H OH R $55,500 $45,000 $10,500
Emanuel, Rahm H IL D $51,750 $16,000 $35,750
Isakson, Johnny S GA R $49,200 $35,500 $13,700
Cantor, Eric H VA R $48,500 $46,500 $2,000
Crapo, Mike S ID R $47,250 $40,500 $6,750
Frank, Barney H MA D $42,350 $30,500 $11,850
Oh really?
-- The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008_passed by the United States Congress on July 24, 2008 and signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2008_enabled expanded regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the newly established FHFA, and gave the U.S. Treasury the authority to advance funds for the purpose of stabilizing Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac, limited only by the amount of debt that the entire federal government is permitted by law to commit to. The law raised the Treasury's debt ceiling by US$ 800 billion, to a total of US$ 10.7 trillion, in anticipation of the potential need for the Treasury to have the flexibility to support Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or the Federal Home Loan Banks.[12][13][14]
How did this happen? How did this happen? Let me tell you how it happened, which is fair since now we are all paying for the profit of a few people and the benefit of a few Democrats.
--On November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One of the effects of the repeal was to allow commercial and investment banks to consolidate. Some economists have criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.[7][8]
The repeal enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities. Citigroup played a major part in the repeal. Then called Citicorp, the company merged with Travelers Insurance company the year before using loopholes in Glass-Steagall that allowed for temporary exemptions. With lobbying led by Roger Levy, the "finance, insurance and real estate industries together are regularly the largest campaign contributors and biggest spenders on lobbying of all business sectors [in 1999]. They laid out more than $200 million for lobbying in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics..." These industries succeeded in their two decades long effort to repeal the act.[9]
The banking industry had been seeking the repeal of Glass-Steagall since at least the 1980's. In 1987 the Congressional Research Service prepared a report which explored the case for preserving Glass-Steagall and the case against preserving the act.
Oh really? Really?
By the way, would it interest you to learn that in 2005 there was a bill to create a regulatory committee to oversee Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae to ensure these things never happened (HR 1461, to be precise)? To ensure that they would not go bankrupt and drag the economy and our government down with them?
You know a regulatory committee? Well, despite what Barack Obama and Company would tell you? It wasn't the Republicans who voted that oversight on Wall Street down was it?
Well, holy shit.
Why wouldn't the Democrats want to prevent the Regulations that they now demand and claim the Republicans denied?
First of all, let's see what Obama said to Keith Olbermann when asked about it?
OBAMA: Well, I don't think it's going to be $5 trillion. That's the amount of debt that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are holding. But a lot of those are good mortgages. People are paying them. We are going to see some losses. Taxpayers are going to take a hit. How big it is, we don't yet know.
And I have to be fair on this one. Republicans and Democrats I think in Congress did not pay enough attention to the structural problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which was, they are quasi public, quasi private institutions. They are making big profits and their CEOs are taking in big bonuses when times are good. But there is this implicit federal guarantee when times are bad.
And that was a structural problem that needs to be fixed.
But the problem of not regulating the financial markets effectively generally, not seeing that the subprime mortgage crisis was leading to a mess, not updating some of our financial regulations since the 1930s, that's been, I think, an example of the neglect on the part of the Bush administration over the last eight years whose view is basically anything goes and the government just has to stay out of the way. That has ironically hurt the market and one of the things we have got to rediscover is a little bit of well-applied regulation and transparency and accountability actually helps the market, helps the economy grow. And that's what I want to restore when I'm president.
Really? The guy who votes with his fellow Dems 97% of the time is going to push this bill through? The goddamned bill that his party blocked, and enjoyed the benefits of it being blocked? He's going to restore this?
Bullshit!
Let's be honest, it was the Democrats during the Clinton years and after who passed legislation, and helped to enable these companies to make high risk, subprime loans to people who could never pay them back! And now here we are! Blaming everyone but the people who removed the regulations in the first goddamned place!
Under the watch of the Clintons even as one of their lackies Franklin Raines loots Fannie Mae after being made the head of it for 100 million dollars, steers it further into high risk ventures, and pays a 400 million dollar fine to the SEC, and the Clintons and their minions made a ton of money?
They guide (force) Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac into buying more low income high risk mortgages! Even as the company is selling off debt to Countrywide which only was saved by Bank of America to prevent bankruptcy!
Good job, guys!
Link: http://perspectives.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=186294&forum_id=91
Here's another: http://atangledweb.squarespace.com/httpatangledwebsquarespace/fannie-mae-collapse-or-the-democrat-swindle-of-the-us-taxpay.html
Wow. Good thing, the Democrats are here to keep corporations in line!
Here's another bit of news I found.
This is a long and complicated story about how Obama backers were behind the mortgage industry meltdown. It hast to start some where, so lets start with a well known Chicago name Penny Pritzker. It starts with a bank failure.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for the 1,406 people who lost much of their life savings when Superior Bank of Chicago went belly up in 2001 with over $1 billion in insured and uninsured deposits. This collapse came amid harsh criticism of how Superior's owners promoted sub-prime home mortgages. As part of a settlement, the owners paid $100 million and agreed to pay another $335 million over 15 years at no interest.
The uninsured depositors were dealt another blow recently when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision to put any recovered money toward the debt that the bank owners owe the federal government before the depositors get anything.
But this seven-year-old bank failure has relevance in another way today, since the chair of Superior's board for five years was Penny Pritzker, a member of one of America's richest families and the current Finance Chair for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the same candidate who has lashed out against predatory lending.
Well, sumbitch.
Oh, you know something else? It seems Fannie Mae gave a bunch of money to ACORN, a rant for another day let's just say they have some problems with a little thing I call 'Voter Fraud'.
And they also had a lawyer named Barack Obama, who also by the way? Gave them money for helping for to get the vote out to the tune of 80,000 dollars! Which by the way was hid and buried deep in the books of ACORN, I wonder why?
Here's another fact:
During Obama's time on the Woods Funds ACORN received grants of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), and $40,000 (2002) from the Woods Fund. (Obama in the early 1990's helped train ACORN organizers and later served as counsel in 1995 for ACORN in a "motor voter" registration lawsuit.) And ACORN certainly appreciated whatever assistance Obama afforded the radical organization over the years.
Goddamn.
Good thing, the Democrats are not all about corporate greed or I would be concerned. It's okay to help the poor if you can, I don't know, rip them off while you're at it?
I mean you're not paying for it, the Taxpayer is. I am, you are, that guy is, Obama isn't.
Franklin Raines, CEO: $90,128,761 (1998-2003)
Jamie Gorelick, vice-chair: $26,466,834 (1998-2003)
Jim Johnson, CEO: $21,000,000 (1998 alone)
Look up these names in Wikipedia, and find the goddamned links.
And then tell me how Obama and his Democrats can blast anyone when he took $126,000.00 dollars of campaign money from these people he now condemns!
Yeah, I know.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
wheezy_e:
I'd been hearing about the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act a bit concerning this matter (as well as the contributions to Barak) but hadn't had the time to explore it. Thanks for the in depth post.
ckdexterhaven:
Hey, did you ever get into the conservative group? You should be in there, maybe Colinism forget about adding you.