McCain Whiffed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Yet Again

How is it that John McCain went through this entire debate without seriously mentioning the names “Fannie Mae” or “Freddie Mac”? He barely skirted around the subprime mortgages and talked about the “greed” of Wall Street without once mentioning Congress’ involvement in this whole mess.

Here’s what he could have said:

Here, folks, is the core of the problem. A few years ago, Democratic politicians thought it would be a great to make sure that everyone could buy a house. Now I agree with them that was a good goal. But, as usual, they took it way too far. They used the power of Congress to push two groups called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into telling banks that they would buy up all the subprime mortgages those banks could issue. This was a good deal for the banks because they sold the mortgages for even more money which they used to make even more mortgages which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought, too. Democrats in Congress were happy because lots of people were moving into houses. The people who ran these Government Sponsored Entities, two of whom have advised the Obama campaign, were happy because they made millions of dollars.

As of right now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own half of all the subprime mortgages that are out there. That means that the biggest predatory lender tonight, by far, is your Federal Government.

And Congress demanded that they do all of that.

Twice, the President and I tried to rein in these entities. We wanted to regulate them because, right now, they aren’t regulated very much at all. First he, then I, tried to set up a brand new body to regulate the entities that now own half of the mortgages that are in the most trouble. Democrats in Congress stopped us. They said that there was no problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They were afraid that if we regulated them more, they wouldn’t be able to push for any more subprime mortgages. Well, they were right about the last part but very, very wrong about the first part.

They didn’t block my reform attempt alone. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac donated millions of dollars to members of Congress. My opponent right there took more from them than anyone except the man who chaired the committee that oversees the entities. And he did that in just three years.

So when we look at the financial troubles our country is having, we have to remember who started the trouble, kept it moving, and prevented me or anyone else from even slowing it down. It was Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

There. That wasn’t so hard now was it?

If John McCain can’t deliver some version of that, he has no business running this country.

And he sure as hell won’t get my vote.

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Category: Johnny Mac, The Economy and Your Money