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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HPilot who wrote (553157)	3/4/2010 4:26:33 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575520

"So what did Bush have to do with Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac?! They tried to curb their poor lending habits but Congress would have none of it." Bush had an (R) congress for six years. Bush was in charge of enforcing regulations, as president and administrator. Bush openly PIMPED minority lending: ====================================================================== Was Bush's 'ownership society' cause of world economic meltdown? latimesblogs.latimes.com When he was testifying before Congress the other day about the world's economic crisis, former Bush Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said that too many unqualified people got loans. He suggested that one of the culprits might have been George W. Bush's "ownership society." Borrowing the concept from conservative thinkers, President Bush began touting an ownership society early in his first term. The idea encompassed a range of policies -- from healthcare to house buying -- in which Republicans believed government should get out of the way and empower individuals to make their own financial decisions. In a fact sheet, the White House said: The president believes that homeownership is the cornerstone of America's vibrant communities and benefits individual families by building stability and long-term financial security. Challenging the real estate and mortgage finance industries to "close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities," the president argued that increasing homeownership would enroll everyone in the fabric of their communities, thus decreasing crime, improving schools and cementing a sense of local civic pride. So today, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked if the initiative went too far. Maybe, a reporter suggested, it was the president who encouraged the bad lending practices that led to the subprime mortgage mess. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, she not only defended President Bush but President Clinton as well. In fact, she more or less blamed Congress, saying: The president did promote homeownership, especially minority homeownership, which went up at an amazing rate. The president never recommended risky loans. And in fact, we were trying to put the kibosh on that for a long time, and we didn't have a willing partner in Congress. We do think that people being able to own their homes is a way to help establish good communities, good families and help improve the economy. So we did support that. But no one in this administration, nor the previous administration, would have supported people getting into situations that they weren't going to be able to -- where they weren't going to be able to pay for their own mortgages. -- Johanna Neuman