$700 billion — now what?

get to the bottom of who was responsible and get rid of them. begin with obama and his little FRED-FRAN handouts that netted principals of both companies with jobs in the Obama camp.

JOHN MCCAIN's SPEECH ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE IN 2006 FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERPRISE REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 2005 Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac. The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform. For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay. I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole. I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation. Quick Info S. 190 [109th]: Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 Last Action: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably. Status: Dead WHO KILLED IT? DEMOCRATS IN GENERAL AND OBAMA IN PARTICULAY. OBAMA WAS ONE WHO VOTED AGAINST IT. how can these people think obama is hte one that deserves the credit when it was mcCain fighting this for the longest is puzzling.

This nation was given a $700 Billion proposal that was begged for by a Republican President and a Republican Treasury Secretary and a Republic SEC Chairman and a Republican nominated Fed Chairman then signed into law in record time by a Republican President — to bail out Republican Wall Street traders and bankers -- whose failure to lead, oversee, regulate in the spirit of "free enterprise" is about to devastate the rest of Main Street. a $trillion here for a mistake in Iraq a $trillion there for tax cuts for the rich and a few $trillion everywhere for the largest bailout ever in human history……. and now we have the worst economy since the 1929 Great Depression. ------------- 6 out of Bush’s 8 years in office were Republican controlled Congress...what’s their excuse again? ------------- ....and that’s the problem with the so-called “conservative” Instead of leading and taking charge these past eight years, they whine and point the finger at something or somebody else…”it’s all their fault!” - they wail like children. The inability to be fully accountable and accept responsible for their failures & stupidity is precisely why the Republican Party will lose handily on Nov. 4th. The American people are well aware of the Republican Party inability to lead. Currently on Intrade Market Obama is rising at 64.0 and McCain in decline at 35.3 On Nov. 4th, the American people will give its verdict on who it blamed.

The New York Times concludes that Democratic lawmakers are responsible for collapse of Fannie and Freddie Pressured to Take More Risk, Fannie Hit a Tipping Point Published: October 4, 2008 "Democratic lawmakers demanded that the company buy more loans that had been made to low-income and minority homebuyers." “When homes are doubling in price in every six years and incomes are increasing by a mere one percent per year, Fannie’s mission is of paramount importance,” Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, lectured Mr. Mudd at a Congressional hearing in 2006. “In fact, Fannie and Freddie can do more, a lot more.” "Lawmakers, particularly Democrats, leaned on Fannie and Freddie to buy and hold those troubled debts, hoping that removing them from the system would help the economy recover." “I’m not worried about Fannie and Freddie’s health, I’m worried that they won’t do enough to help out the economy,” the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, said at the time. “That’s why I’ve supported them all these years — so that they can help at a time like this.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05fannie.html?ref=business

For psygone: You can send up smokescreens all day long to try to hide it, but the truth is coming out. For those of you who would like to lay this mess at the feet of Republicans you will have to cross over this and it will devastate you: "For the first time in history (in 2005), a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets. If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed. But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter. That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the Democrats was obscene even then." FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THE ARTICLE ON BLOOMBERG.COM GO TO: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0

It is devoid of understanding when some in the media positively paint Obama's push for more taxes and more entitlements on the same day the House passes a $700 Billion bailout. And to believe that his friends Franklin Raines, Tim Howard and Jim Johnson - all former Fannie Mae executives and now advisors on the Obama campaign - will be charged with getting us out of this mess is just plain stupid. We may cripple our children and future generations in more ways than one if we elect the wrong person to the White House. Think people...think!

Neither Obama nor McCain is enough of an expert to get us out of this mess. There are very few people in this country who even fully understand what happened, although it is generally agreed that those who pushed the FMs into granting ill-advised loans are mostly responsible, AS ARE people who took out mortgages for homes they knew they couldn't afford, one way or another. To think that Obama or McCain getting elected is the answer, you are delusional. It is going to take a lot of people who are more interested in healing our economy than they are in getting elected/re-elected/re-elected. Neither Obama nor McCain is going to be able to hand out any BBQ to constituents. Republicans already know this; democraps are in denial. I would personally love to see ALL pork thrown out, along with the people who are trying to run this through the legislative process. I would love to see government as a governing body and not as an "Uncle Sam's Treasure Chest". I was recently sickened to hear one of our church's food bank volunteers boast that we had 3rd generation families coming in for free food. I don't call that a success at all. What is the matter with people? Personally, I think the democraps have had a lot to do with precipiatating this crisis in order to get The One We Have Been Waiting For elected. I shudder to think that it is part of a plan to shift us to a socialist society. I don't think most Americans realize what that would be like. I don't have many years left, but I weep for my chidren and grandchildren to think what it will be like for them. I will NEVER vote for Obama; if he is elected, I will NEVER recognize him as my president. In many elections, it really didn't matter so much. This time we may not get another chance to make it right.

One thing I can tell you is this: McCain will cut spending. That's the only way out of this mess. In fact, if the government were to be cut IN HALF in one year we could pay for this entire mess. Now, who believes that will happen under Obama, Dodd, Pelosi, Reid, Biden,etc.? No one. The only chance for America to survive is McCain. This is a war, not a community-organizer event.

For a definitive chronicle of the involvement of Democrats in this crisis go to Democrats out politician the Republicans in our Financial crisis! at http://brokengovernment.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/democrats-out-politician-the-republicans-with-our-financial-crisis

I found Biden's comments (in his debate with Palin) blaming the financial meltdown on Republicans to be the height of hypocrisy. Anyone who cares to check verifiable facts can see this is clearly the fault of Democrat policies going back to Clinton and even Johnson. Not only did they cause the problem, they now have the audacity to blame it on the Republicans. The only thing sadder than this is that a huge number of American people believe them. God deliver us.

And on TOP of ALL THIS -- the two most LIBERAL states in the country - California and Massachusetts - are now coming to Washington, hat in hand, asking that the rest of America bail them out of their financial problems by lending them billions of dollars. Their financial problems are a direct result of their inane, liberal policies. The financial failures of California and Massachusetts are harbingers of what will happen to this country if we elect their even MORE liberal leader, Barak Obama. When America fails, who will we go to, hat in hand, and beg for crumbs from their tables? The Saudis? Iran? China? America! Wake up!

psygone after reading your comment and understanding your your distaste for Republican anything, you might put the kool-aid down long enough to learn all about the mortgage crisis and how we got there - it was on the Democratic path to housing for all, even if you cannot pay for it. Read more at: http://brokengovernment.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/democrats-out-politician-the-republicans-with-our-financial-crisis/