Posted by
BrianW on Thursday, September 25, 2008 7:04:35 PM
Thank you, Ann coulter, for pulling out a few more inconvenient facts...
"the Los Angeles Times reported that,
starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that
Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for
low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that
requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and
creative in stimulating minority gains."
Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive
pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and
minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development,
Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination
and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's
portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income
borrowers by the year 2001.
Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the
mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down
payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional
measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or
having a missing child named "Caylee."
Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that
banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid
income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn't a joke --
it's a fact.
When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative
branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound
business practices.
In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative
action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron
Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration's affirmative action
lending policies as one of the "hidden success stories" of the
Clinton administration, saying that "black and Latino
homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded."
Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that
the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that
would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat
borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their
houses.
A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted,
food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an
affirmative action time-bomb and now it's gone off.
In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief
economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's
"implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with
loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the
entire financial system.
Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern
about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who
can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but
these entities still had "important political allies" in the
Democrats."