Video: Congressional Democrats Refuse to Talk About Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
In what is a clear sign that Congressional Democrats know they will be in serious trouble if American voters would find out just how big a role they played in the financial crisis, and especially in the downfall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Congressional Oversight Committee refused to mention the words “Fannie Mae” and “Freddie” Mac while talking about the financial crisis. All these Democrats talked about, it seemed, was deregulation and high salaries for CEO’s. Not once, however, did they mention the root of the problem (or, at least, part of the root of the problem).
Republicans found that rather strange and confronted the committee. The chairman, Democrat Harry Waxman then made clear that they would not get into such details that would actually deal with the real problem; that would simply make matters messy.
Republicans responded furiously. “Any hearing on oversight that does not begin with Fannie and Freddie and [former Fannie Mae CEO] Franklin Raines will be a sham,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). “This is like investigating a train robbery and only talking to the dining car stewards.”
Watch the video:
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Some people are saying that we shouldn’t be talking about who is to blame right now, and while I understand (and often agree with) that type of thinking, there are reasons that it doesn’t apply here.
I don’t think anyone would disagree with the idea that to solve this crisis, we have to understand what caused it and get to the root. But we can’t possibly do that if we accept only one potential cause or the other- as the Dems would have people think this was all about deregulation and unchecked greed on Wall Street, while the GOP would have us think that it’s strictly about Fannie Mae and the subprime mortgage fiasco (social engineering of lending policies.) There’s actually some truth to both (though more accurate on the GOP side
)
If we don’t allow the whole story to come out, we’ll never fix this. Please, everyone, put aside the partisanship that leads you to protect the members of your own party and recognize the heroes and villains that have played a role from BOTH parties.