economic crisis president bush mortgage speech


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9viaJatpo

bush speech 2002 encouraging freddie mac and fanny may

Watch the video of George Bush speaking six years ago about racial lending policies that are now coming home to roost. Here is the text of George Bush’s words directly from the video:

More and more people own their own homes in America today. Two thirds of all Americans own their own homes, but we have a problem because fewer than half of the Hispanics and fewer than half of the African Americans own their own home. That’s a home ownership gap, a gap we have to work together to close. By the end of this decade we will increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5 and ½ million.

Of course one of the larger obstacles to minority home ownership is financing. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have committed to provide more money for lenders, they have committed to meet the shortage of money for minority homebuyers. Freddie Mac recently began 25 initiatives around the country to dismantle barriers and create greater opportunities for home ownership. One of the programs is designed to help deserving families with bad credit histories to qualify for home ownership loans. You don’t have to have a lousy home for first time homebuyers. You put your mind to it, the low income homebuyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else.

In a September 28 Boston Globe column, Jeff Jacoby asserted:

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and “redliningâ€