Everyone keeps saying that the Dems were in “charge.” How were they in charge? What power did they have? The Dems lacked a 2/3 majority to override a presidential veto, so they couldn’t pass anything without it being vetoed by president bush. Second, the Dems lacked 60 votes to block legislation, as the youtube video of the Dems objecting to regulations of fannie mae and freddie mac seem to imply. Just because they objected doesn’t mean anything because they had no power to block any legislation.
Look, I agree that it was wrong for the Dems to object to regulating the mortgage market to help low income minority buyers purchase homes in an effort to be politically correct. However, the Republicans are just as much at fault for not exercising their power to regulate fannie mae and freddie mac because after all, President Bush had the power to prevent the Dems from doing anything. And Mccain and other Republicans suggesting that they “warned” everyone about the mortgage industry seems to be ridiculous as President Bush had the power to impose regulations without approval of the Dems.
Are people actually reading my question? For those of you state that democrats had control of congress in 2006, that is incorrect. The dems lacked a 2/3 majority and also lacked a 60 vote blocking power to block legislation. Therefore, they had no control!!!
April 13, 2010 at 3:25 am
Because it’s easy to point fingers in the other direction.
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April 13, 2010 at 4:04 am
Republicans have become too liberal.
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April 13, 2010 at 4:30 am
They ran fanny may and freddy mac…….now do some homework and get back to us
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April 13, 2010 at 5:19 am
Because they don’t realize that actions can have long-lasting effects. Unrestricted markets get out of hand, and it goes down the toilet under a new administration. That doesn’t mean it’s Obama’s fault.
Goddamn GOP retards giving every lib a thumbs down…
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April 13, 2010 at 6:16 am
Finally, someone who sees through the blame game. Democrats and Republicans are both responsible for this, and instead of pointing fingers at one another, they should place their attention on other things like I don’t know….the economy!
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April 13, 2010 at 7:11 am
Because they had control of congress a lot longer than you think, since 2006 or so, and things started down turning around 2007?
Hmm…facts? Got ‘em?
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April 13, 2010 at 7:14 am
Because the Democrats took control of the House and Senate in 2006, therefore they were in charge. Because Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were extolling the virtues of Fannie May and Freddie Mack back in 2004 when John McCain first brought the problem to attention.
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April 13, 2010 at 7:24 am
Here ya go junior…..
Watch and learn
Repubs tried YEARS AGO to fix this before it blew up…. and the dems are ON RECORD defending the Housing/Banking systems and DEMONIZING the republicans for political reasons.
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April 13, 2010 at 8:07 am
While the dems lacked a 2/3 majority vote, they were the majority in number. frank sat on the house finance committee and just swore that there was nothing wrong fannie mae/freddie mac.
>President Bush had the power to impose regulations without approval of the Dems
Sorry, but the president is the executive branch. Only congress can set regulations, it’s the presidents job to approve or disapprove.
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April 13, 2010 at 8:29 am
The Republicans never had complete power. You need a 60 vote majority in the Senate to avoid a Filibuster. Republicans never had a 60 vote majority and could not pass anything without Democrat support.
The Democrats don’t have complete power now. That is why they needed 3 Republican Senators to go along with the recent Stimulus Bill.
Between 2000 and 2006 the Republican majorities in the Senate were between 50 and 55 votes. Meaning they needed 5-10 Democrats in order to bring a measure up for a vote. To go against Pelosi and Frank while all Dems hated Bush (constituency and voters) was political suicide. If there was no convincing them, then there was no chance in getting the needed 5-10 votes. As you pointed out, they tried.
And as an added kicker — why is Pelosi trying to pin the blame on the Repubs now? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?:
“No regulation, no supervision, no discipline” Pelosi 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxMInSfanqg&feature=related
Lots of blame to go around including Repubs, Banks, Failed implementation of Oversight, too much Government involvement in these banks/mortgage companies, consumers, etc. etc..
I think Congress and banks are the focal point:
Congress allowed Fan/Fred to enable the banks…the banks in turn enabled the consumers.
Fan/Fred also enabled the derivatives market by artificially inflating the housing market — or the entity the derivatives were based upon.
To disregard Democratic deregulation as a key component in this crisis is foolish — as foolish as saying the Repubs had absolutely no part in it.
The objective is to see the big picture — absent political affiliations. Once you understand what went on, only then is it time for the witch-hunt and prosecution.
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“The dems lacked a 2/3 majority and also lacked a 60 vote blocking power to block legislation. Therefore, they had no control!!!”
Repubs lacked total control as well:
109th Congress (2005-2007)
Majority Party: Republican (55 seats)
Minority Party: Democrat (44 seats)
Other Parties: Independent (1 seat)
Total Seats: 100
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/one_item_and_teasers/partydiv.htm
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April 13, 2010 at 8:37 am
Republicans blame democrats for everything, duh!
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April 13, 2010 at 9:03 am
What evidence do you have that Bush would have vetoed their bill? My one complaint against Bush is that he had the SECOND FEWEST VETOES of any President of the past 100 years.
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April 13, 2010 at 9:08 am
Its everyone’s falt down to the last person who took out a mortgage that they knew they wouldn’t be able to afford if they i dunno… went on unemployment for a few months. THat is absurd. You should have some backing. Liberal Democratic Spending Habits… maybe are to blame, maybe the war is a bit to blame (so are the 96% of Americans that were for it in its onset)
Plain and simple… people like to throw blame around, because then it isn’t their fault.
so do what I did… get a job, work for less than you are worth and buy stuff to support the economy, while saving enough so that you yourself don’t go bankrupt.
anyone know obama’s stance on post-college grad loan debt holders?
I think they need some help too.
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April 13, 2010 at 9:16 am
Democrats suck. They bankrupted us, and spen all of our money on random stuff, such as a museum in Rhode Island. Obama’s overspending is whittling the dollar away to nothing.
Deart whatever the hell your name is,
Learn some politics. You are a failure at life. Did you here all of this from your uneducated friends? Or your mom? I know I’ve heard your mom, and I will tell you, she’s pretty loud. And the funny thing is, she has a soft voice most of the time, but when she is orgasming from my massive pen15, she moans louder than a wolf under the moon.
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April 13, 2010 at 10:09 am
Barney Frank is the chair of the Financial Services Committee, and has been since 2006. Chris Dodd is the chair of the House Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and has been since 2006. These are the two key positions in congress to control policy surrounding banking, financial services and housing policy.
Many times, complaints were raised that oversight was broken and that we were headed for disaster. Their are many clips on youtube of Franks and Dodd both saying that these claims were outrageous and false, that their were no problems at Fannie and Freddie and that their was no fear of an economic crisis. They ignored these observations and squashed legislation that would have re-regulated Fannie and Freddie, such as this bill for example: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190
Bush is not the problem here, the president can’t sign bills that don’t exist, the bills that needed to reach his desk never got there, and Dodd and Franks are primarily to blame for that. As far as McCain is concerned, he was one of the cosponsors of the legislation in my link. Read it. You will be amazed that such a piece of legislation existed prior to the economic crisis. Perhaps you will wonder why it never got passed, and if you bother to look into that, you will understand why Dodd and Franks are blamed so often.
It is true that the president can propose regulations without congress’ approval, but laws passed in the Clinton era severely restricted this. You can read about Bush’s frustrations with being unable to properly regulate in this NYT article from 2003: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/business/new-agency-proposed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
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April 13, 2010 at 10:21 am
it is hardly there fault, but they are at fault for not trying to fix it.
IF they really wanted to fix it they would cosponsor bill HR 1207
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1207
The Private Federal Reserve cause this, it is their fault 100%
and the government is not allowed to question anything they do
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April 13, 2010 at 11:16 am
Only the blind or willfully ignorant believe that the economic crisis is purely a Democrat party problem.
The situation didn’t arise from too much regulation, but a complete lack of oversight and enforcement of the regulations on the books.
Certain Republicans like to believe that the Democrats were responsible when the Republicans controlled congress, but the facts are basic with our Constitutional form of govt.:
the party in power controls the agenda.
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April 13, 2010 at 11:43 am
I blame both Parties… Yes they both have to bear the consequences of their actions.. like normal folk, we’d be in jail.. no key.. and yes we’re paying for our mistakes too.
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April 13, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection
Democratic House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former ’spouse’ was Fannie Mae executive.
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080924145932.aspx
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April 13, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Jimmy Carter did it!
*Sarcasm*
Republicans are the only people to not ever admit to making a mistake. Over the last 10 years, 9 of those years were Republicans in congress and 1 was Democratic. They blame all our problems on either Jimmy Carter or that single year Democrats had majority. But even when they had majority the economy was already tumbling.
Every time our country is in rough times they never hold themselves accountable its always the Libs fault.
If they honestly believe that Dems are the cause of this crisis, they wouldn’t have lost to what falls short to a Democrat Super majority in a single year.
The truth hurts.
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April 13, 2010 at 1:12 pm
The republicans wanted this investigated and the democrats said no so who’s fault is this?
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April 13, 2010 at 1:54 pm
During the Bush administration, here’s how it was set up:
Democrats had: 2 years with majority in Congress. 0 years Presidential veto power.
Republicans had: 6 years with majority in Congress. 8 years Presidential veto power.
While I realize there’s blame to go around, it’s really stretching it to blame the Democrats for their 2 years with the majority in Congress under a Republican President. Yet, far too many Republicans stretch things that far on a regular basis without a second thought. Just look at some of the answers above.
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April 13, 2010 at 1:59 pm
They are intricately involved in this mess and they are making it even worse!
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April 13, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I don’t know about Barney Frank; but Chris Dodd is the one that inserted “Retention Award” into the stimulus package. It was reported here on Yahoo that companies wanted a way to retain top management. they sold “Retention award” to Senator Dodd. why he didn’t understand that a Retention Award is another way of saying bonus. I don’t know.
Because I read it here. Many are upset with the democrats because they didn’t pick up on this announcement and let it happen. I knew and they should have. this makes it seem as if it’s business as usual in Washington and we voted for change.
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