Okay....here's something else...WARNING!! I don't know who this guy is but I suspect he's right wing. But what I thought was interesting is that he provides all the dates of when Bush tried to get Congress to reform Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae and they DIDN'T.

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - White House warned about Fannie and Freddie

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hijack:

I can't believe you don't know who Glenn Beck is!!

end hijack

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OK, I read it, but didn't see where it said reform was BLOCKED by democratic senators. It said "What happened? Despite moves from Republicans such as Chuck Hagel, John Sununu, Elizabeth Dole, and John McCain to get more regulatory oversight on Fannie and Freddie, Congress took no action."

It doesn't say WHEN the republicans tried to get the regulatory oversight.
Hasn't Congress been controlled by the republicans from 1994-2006? Or 1996-2006? Still, the article mentions Obama specifically, and he just became a Senator starting in 2007. Haven't we been talking about this problem seriously pre-dating that?

Haven't read the other one yet, Aliadam. I'm in a meeting andsort of sneaking my reading...

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Just had a chance to peek at the Glenn Beck one - I hate that guy's show. His article goes back to 2001, and touches year by year since then. Again, republican president and republican congress from 2000 until 2007, when Congress was "democratically controlled" by just one. Really 50/50, if you consider Leiberman.

It seems to me that this was a failure to act on ALL sides. Individuals might have seen it coming, but no one took a risk to take a stand, take action, wake the others up, or something.

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It does when you remember that the Republican majority in the Senate was very narrow. There were several liberal Republican Senators from the NE, Olympia Snow, Jim Jeffords, etc who habitually crossed the line and voted with the Democratics on most controversial issues, giving them (Dems) the majority of votes. I should have said liberals in Congress shot down measures for reform.

Don't forget the press this kind of proposals for reform would get. Any measure for reform would be reported in the press as being against housing for the poor (until now when Fannie?Freddie are bankrupt.) Who wants to be seen as against that? The more liberal Republicans were too whimpy to vote for reform and risk bad press, imo.

As to why the new HUD director didn't change the regs back to pre-Cuomo? I don't know. My guess is political pressure and fear of bad press. More whimpy-ness.

Ooops....I don't. But you since you & calimari both know him I assume he's not a nobody?!? He's probably on cable?? or the radio?? Give me a hint here if you're going to hijack me!!!

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Just to "respectfully" correct you....Obama was elected a senator in 2004.

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Ooops....I read so many articles, I guess this one didn't include the 2005 details of who voted how. I guess you want me to waste my afternoon to look it up for you don't you?!? Let me go see if I can find it.

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Okay calimari....Just for you!!! And this one is even from the Wall Street Journal

Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess - WSJ.com

Here's the paragraph where it says all republicans vote for it and all the democrats against it.

"In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a strong reform bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu and Chuck Hagel, and supported by then chairman Richard Shelby. The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006. All the Republicans on the Committee supported the bill, and all the Democrats voted against it. Mr. McCain endorsed the legislation in a speech on the Senate floor. Mr. Obama, like all other Democrats, remained silent."

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He has his morning radio show, his evening CNN Headline News show and he's written books. He's VERY opinionated and resorts to name calling BIG TIME to people who don't agree with him. If I was ever to go on his show, I would make sure we had the same opinion first, lol. The one thing that stands out is when he called Natalie from the Dixie Chicks "the fat one who can't keep her mouth shut." That's when we quit watching. You can get your point across without belittling other people.

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