John Kerry said of the bailout package on Fox this morning: “We wanted to protect the taxpayers.”
In light of this statement, and the documented failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we thought it might be interesting to look at John Kerry’s record when it comes to these financial institutions, their Democrat roots, malfeasance in those institutions, and the impact on this financial crisis.
Where Was Sen. Dodd?
Playing the Blame Game On Fannie and Freddie
By Al Hubbard and Noam Neusner
September 12, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102841.html
Taxpayers face a tab of as much as $200 billion for a government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the formerly semi-autonomous mortgage finance clearinghouses. And Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has the gall to ask in a Bloomberg Television interview: “I have a lot of questions about where was the administration over the last eight years.
We will save the senator some trouble. Here is what we saw firsthand at the White House from late 2002 through 2007: Starting in 2002, White House and Treasury Department economic policy staffers, with support from then-Chief of Staff Andy Card, began to press for meaningful reforms of Fannie, Freddie and other government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).
The administration did not accept half-measures. In 2005, Republican Mike Oxley, then chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, brought up a reform bill (H.R. 1461), and Fannie and Freddie’s lobbyists set out to weaken it. The bill was rendered so toothless that Card called Oxley the night before markup and promised to oppose it. Oxley pulled the bill instead.
During this period, Sen. Richard Shelby led a small group of legislators favoring reform, including fellow Republican Sens. John Sununu, Chuck Hagel and Elizabeth Dole.
Meanwhile, Dodd —who along with Democratic Sens. John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the top four recipients of Fannie and Freddie campaign contributions from 1988 to 2008 — actively opposed such measures and further weakened existing regulation.
September 15, 2008 – 9:33am
Beatty renews call for Kerry to return Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac contributions
By Jeremy P. Jacobs
Jeff Beatty renewed his call last weekend for John Kerry to return $111,000 in campaign contributions he has received from employees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
WHY FANNIE MAE’S BOSS WANTS JOHN KERRY TO WIN
October 5, 2004 |
BY JOHN CRUDELE, NY POST
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1235575/posts
October 05, 2004
There is probably no body in the country who wants John Kerry elected more than Franklin Raines. Don’t know who he is? Raines is the former Clinton Administration big shot who currently runs Fannie Mae.
Back in 2000 I picked Fannie Mae as one of a few stocks to own if Al Gore became president and one to avoid if George Bush won the office.
The Democrats would protect Raines and Fannie Mae, the quasi government organization that issues mortgages, from the kind of insight that might uncover the wrongdoing that some of us suspected was occurring.
Well, it took four years after Bush won but people are now avoiding Fannie Mae, whose stock is falling amid investigations of its business ethics and accounting practices.
As I also noted four years ago, Fannie Mae is the only individual stock that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has ever said anything bad about.
And therein lies the most important fact in the latest Fannie Mae saga.
Greenspan was worried back then that something going wrong at Fannie Mae or its sister company, Freddie Mac, would have “important consequences for the structure and efficiency of the financial markets.”
Put in plain English, if something went sour at Fannie Mae there could be a big blot on the world financial system.
The current Fannie Mae story is still in the first act. But the investigation probably has Alan Greenspan wondering where the script is headed and if the Democrats will allow it to play out if they win the White House.
Beatty calls Kerry ‘elitist,’ out of touch
By DAVID KIBBE
dkottaway@aol.com
September 18, 2008
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS/809180314
BOSTON — Harwich Republican Jeff Beatty wasted no time going on the attack in the race for U.S. Senate yesterday, one day after Sen. John Kerry’s victory in the Democratic primary.
“John Kerry, enough,” Beatty said. “In 24 unproductive years in the Senate, you have passed too few bills, done too little to help people live their daily lives, and instead of cleaning up this financial mess, throughout your entire career, you have taken special interest money and turned your back on this problem.”
Beatty, a former Delta Force and CIA operations officer, has vowed to cut taxes and reduce government spending.
THANKS SEN. KERRY FOR YOUR CONCERN FOR THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER
(PS NOTE! Kerry, on Fox, referring to Biden’s recent gaffe’s on the campaign trail: “Listen, when you are running like a bandit, you’re prone to slips of the tongue.” Running like a bandit! Good gaffe Sen. Kerry.)
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