Republicans Saw It Coming, Democrats Helped It Along - The Truth Behind The Collapse
Posted by: Ken_Taylor

Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 10:24AM

We have listened for more than a week now as Barack Obama and Democrats like Barney Frank and others continually blame John McCain, the Bush Administration and Republicans in general for the massive collapse on Wall Street that has taken place.

Unfortunatly this canard being spewed by Democrats is playing well with the American people in light of the $700 billion dollar bailout which is extremely unpopular and is being pushed by the Bush Administration. A move that because of continual Democrat obstruction over the past ten years in preventing Republicans from actually regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac where this problem began then working its way through the financial system and providing regulatory oversight of these ,"government sponsored enterprises," which portrayed themselves as the guru of , "affordable housing," thus recieving backing by all Democrats and a few Republicans with Democrats accusing Republicans who were trying to regulate these GSE's of creating a witch hunt.

Using the affordable housing issue as a screen, these GSE's, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were allowed because of continual blocking by Democrats to continue virtually unregulated as they flooded the market with sub prime bad loans many of which were bought up by institutions like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which have since gone belly up along with Fannie and Freddie.

Now because of the bailout caused by this Democrat debacle, Republicans who have warned for years and tried to force regulatory oversight to prevent the collapse are taking a hit since the GOP is now faced with being the party in charge of the White House when saving the financial markets is necessary and keeping this from having a further ripple affect on the rest of the economy.

I have already posted about the 2005 move by Republicans which was co-sponsored by John McCain on the Senate floor which would have prevented this debacle from happening if it were not for blocking by Democrats. The 2005 Federal Housing Regulatory Act which was introduced in committee by GOP Senators Elizabeth Dole, John Sanunu and Chuck Hagel is considered to be the most important piece of economic legislation of the 109th Congress. After McCain's co-sponsorship on the Senate floor, Democrats blocked the bill through proceedural measures thus allowing it to die without a vote.


Additionally Democrats have been spending the week claiming that deregualtion by Republicans was the cause of this financial meltdown when just the opposite is true. As a matter of fact the very deragualtion in the banking industry that Democrats are crying about allowed banks to attract more than $100 billion dollars in new capital in the last year replacing their sub prime related write downs allowing them to weather this financial storm. It is also deregulation that has allowed the banking acquisitions of Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch saving taxpayers billions in having to resolve these two investment firms.

Other deregulation by Republicans are found in long-distance telephone rates, the trucking and airline industries and securities brokerage which has actually reduced cunsumer costs because of deregulation.

During the attempt by Republicans to regulate the GSE, Democrats lead by Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd accused regulatory minded Republicans of attempting to end affordable housing and claimed that it was a ploy for the rich which is a typical Democrat mantra. When in fact the regulatory legislation that was being pushed by Republicans recognized the coming of the meltdown we have seen and would have stopped it well before it affected the financial markets thus the need for this massive bailout would have never existed.

Other Democrats like Barack Obama sat back and quietly looked on as this was happening and only recently when they have seen a political opportunity jumped on the regulatory band wagon in order to blame Republicans, John McCain and the Bush administration.

All the while Obama and his Democrat cronies recieved hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which looks to have bought their blocking and their silence. These campaign donations did NOT come from individuals as Democrats have been trying to claim but from Fannie and Freddie's Political Action Committee or PAC.

Now these same Democrats who fought regulation which would have prevented this debacle are deriding Republicans as the cause and placing the major blame on Bush and McCain who both time and again tried to stop this collapse.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in RESISTING efforts by REPUBLICANS in the Congress to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." This quote comes from Bill Clinton.

This Democrat hypocrisy about the Wall Street collapse and in using the terms, "main street," in order to indear themselves as the saviors and the caring mother hen of the people and terms like ,"depression," in order to scare voters is not only one of the largest political scams in our history but is a farce that makes Watergate look like a walk in the park.

http://www.redstate.com/diaries/ken_tay ... -helped-i/