Since I have read many recent posts from our resident liberals who are obviously clueless, apologies for the redundancy, as to what caused the collapse in 2008, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit that. Many of the liberals are of course still in the blame Bush, blame republican mode and pointing to, and ridiculing the absence of Bush at the RNC convention as further proof of that. The first thing I want to point out is that Bush is a very private man which is in complete contrast to the media hound that Clinton is. Furthermore, when he told us that he was retired, he meant it, another concept liberals have trouble understanding so the only surprise to conservatives would be if in fact he did show up. Secondly, the GOP has a very young and deep bench, so I am sure Bush had no desire to take time away from them, again unlike Clinton but of course the DNC bench is pretty thin anyway.
Now onto the cause of the collapse, which of course was the housing bubble. It is estimated that 1 in 7 jobs are connected with housing industry, so it was no surprise that the collapse of that industry sent shocks wave across the entire country and adversely impacted nearly every other industry. Liberals want desperately to blame Bush and deregulation for the collapse, but unfortunately for them, Bush did not enact one piece of financial deregulation legislation during his eight year term. Not one. The last piece of financial deregulation was enacted in 1999 under President Bill Clinton. Furthermore, Bush started ringing the alarm bells on the GSE’s as early as 2001, and then again in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, and finally in 2008. Now to be fair, those warnings were ignored by Republicans and Democrats alike in all of those years, but most recently were mocked by Rep. Barney Framk and Rep. Maxine Waters when she stated that “there is nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddie” in September of 2008:
Maxine Waters: Through nearly a dozen hearings, we were frankly trying to fix something that wasn’t broke. Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Franklin Raines.
Now the question is, why were the GSE’s so over leveraged? Well it was because of a misguided Washington DC policy that said that everyone, including the poor should have a shot at the American Dream and at home ownership. So banks were encouraged, in fact even threatened with Fed support, if they didn’t lower their mortgage standards and start giving more loans to more home buyers. Now, knowing that much of this paper was worthless, the banks started bundling these securities and started selling them to anyone who would buy them in an effort to rid themselves of the toxic assets. And the game continued, fueled even more by rising home values and higher valued loans, in addition to HELOC’s to home owners who saw their equity grow rapidly. When the house of cards fell, no pun intended, all that money evaporated and the economy is still suffering. Now there is no question that financial sector greed played a role, but the real culprit is the federal government, so the real question you need to ask your self is – is handing out millions of mortgages to people who have little means to pay them back, a liberal policy? Or a conservative policy? As Walter Cronkite would say, “And that’s the way it is”.
Blogs For Victory 
I want to point out that one of our resident liberals has already linked to a Wikipedia article on this issue on the previous thread and the gist of the article was this:
The bursting of the U.S. housing bubble, which peaked in 2006,[5] caused the values of securities tied to U.S. real estate pricing to plummet, damaging financial institutions globally.[6][7] The financial crisis was triggered by a complex interplay of the overvaluation of bundled sub-prime mortgages, questionable trading practices on behalf of both buyers and sellers, and a lack of adequate capital holdings from banks and insurance companies to back the financial commitments they were making
This is a popular meme amongst liberals wanting to lay all the blame on banks, but the fact is – had the home owners kept making their payments, the securities would not have collapsed. Liberals want to conveniently ignore that little fact.
Cluster,
Since you decided to use a small excerpt of the article, allow me to post a link to the entire article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–2012_global_financial_crisis
Cappy, you don’t get it whether you read a “small excerpt” or the whole article from wikipedia (there’s an unbiased source).
The government, on behalf of liberals (CRA with Carter and amended by Clinton) meddling in the mortgage market for some imagined racism started this massively accumulating snowball. The bottom fell out. Bush tried to stop it, but of course DEMOCRATS stopped him to appease the race pimps. You would not get it no matter what since you rely on sound-bites from the White House and regurgitate them as if they were gospel. Too many times you have been caught and your whole argument debunked.
Stop casper, the more you try the more foolish you reveal yourself to be.
To his credit President Bush warned about the housing/financial problems long before it happened.
Doesn’t matter does it donkrats?
http://www.realverse.com/president-bush-warned-dems-of-financial-and-housing-crisis/
Many warnings from President Bush and even Darth Rino.
Blaming President Bush for all the worlds ills seems to be an addiction almost as powerful as OPM.
😦
Like all of reality the crash was just a big trick to make conservatives look stupid, we got it.
Anybody know how to use an internet search engine? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/17/real_estate/lowcost_housing/index.htm
You know I have wondered the same thing. Funny how CNN never sourced the “plan”, they just say that that was the administrations plan. Meanwhile, word coming out of the administration at the same time was:
June: Deputy Secretary of Treasury Samuel Bodman spotlights the risk posed by the GSEs and called for reform, saying “We do not have a world-class system of supervision of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), even though the importance of the housing financial system that the GSEs serve demands the best in supervision to ensure the long-term vitality of that system. Therefore, the Administration has called for a new, first class, regulatory supervisor for the three housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banking System.” (Samuel Bodman, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Testimony, 6/16/04).
And here again in February & April 2004:
February: Then-CEA Chairman Mankiw cautions Congress to “not take [the financial market’s] strength for granted.” Again, the call from the Administration was to reduce this risk by “ensuring that the housing GSEs are overseen by an effective regulator.” (N. Gregory Mankiw, Op-Ed, “Keeping Fannie And Freddie’s House In Order,” Financial Times, 2/24/04)
April: Rep. Frank ignores the warnings, accusing the Administration of creating an “artificial issue.” At a speech to the Mortgage Bankers Association conference, Rep. Frank said “people tend to pay their mortgages. I don’t think we are in any remote danger here. This focus on receivership, I think, is intended to create fears that aren’t there.” (“Frank: GSE Failure A Phony Issue,” American Banker, 4/21/04)
So don’t you think it woud be a little odd that the administration at the time was calling for stricter regulation and warning of over capitalization at the same time advocating looser standards? Have you thought that one through?
It was a majority Republican House, a majority Republican Senate and a Republican Presidency… but of course it is easier to distort reality and blame the Democrats. I know… we should put Republicans back in charge, eventhough they were totally ineffective in implementing reforms between 2000 and 2006.
You either don’t read or are stuck on stupid but I clearly stated that congressional republicans share the blame. What is a lie is that Bush deregulated the markets, in addition to pointing out that Bush saw this coming and warned us of it.
Of course the difference here being when republicans fail, they get booted out of office by conservatives. When democrats fail, they are defended and reelected by liberals.
Why would anybody want to vote for such a weak party to represent the strength of the United States?
laughingstock
of course why pick freedom over marxism…..
giggles, do you assert that the Democrat Party actually believes in, and wants to represent, the strength of the United States?
You know, the country you think is arrogant, selfish, and which did not deserve to be admired until it finally got ready to nominate The One We Have All Been Waiting For?
The one you apologize for abroad, the one you find so shameful, the one you find so inferior to, say, Europe?
Cluster, it is true that George W. Bush declined an invitation to the convention months ago. But if the Republicans were truly proud of his accomplishments, you would have thought there would have been more mention of him. There was very little, other than from the occasional Bush family member. In fact, one of the more memorable indirect references was when Paul Ryan lumped Bush in the same boat as Obama with respect to deficit spending.
As for the housing collapse, you state the case as positively as you can for President Bush, which is to be expected from a partisan. You neglect to mention that throughout Bush’s presidency he was a strong advocate for home ownership, including and especially among minorities. In 2002 he laid out his agenda, saying, “I set an ambitious goal. It’s one that I believe we can achieve. It’s a clear goal, that by the end of this decade we’ll increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families. (Applause.) And it’s going to require a strong commitment from those of you involved in the housing industry.”
2004: “For millions of our citizens, the American Dream starts with owning a home. (Applause.) Home ownership gives people a sense of pride and independence and confidence for the future. When you work hard, like you’ve done, and there are good policies coming out of our nation’s capital we’re creating a home — an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property. (Applause.)”
2004: “Last December, I signed the American Dream Down Payment Act, which will help thousands of low-income families afford the down payment and closing costs on their first home. We want people in every corner of America owning a home. (Applause.)”
July 2006: “I am pleased the House passed the Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2006. The Federal Housing Administration has helped millions of Americans become homeowners in communities throughout our country. I appreciate the House’s efforts to modernize this important program to ensure that it reflects the demands of today’s marketplace and addresses the current needs of potential homebuyers. By providing the FHA with increased flexibility for mortgage downpayment requirements and the authority to tailor financing to suit a family’s unique situation, this bill will improve FHA’s ability to help lower and moderate-income families achieve the American Dream. I encourage the Senate to join the House and pass this critical legislation.”
August 2007: “Secretary Paulson and Secretary Jackson gave me an update on the strong fundamentals of our nation’s economy. Economic growth is healthy, and just yesterday we learned that our economy grew at a strong rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of this year. Wages are rising, unemployment is low, exports are up, and steady job creation continues. We also had a good discussion about the situation in America’s financial markets. The markets are in a period of transition, as participants reassess and re-price risk. This process has been unfolding for some time, and it’s going to take more time to fully play out. As it does, America’s overall economy will remain strong enough to weather any turbulence.”
August 2007: “The recent disturbances in the sub-prime mortgage industry are modest — they’re modest in relation to the size of our economy. But if you’re a family — if your family is one of those having trouble making the monthly payments, this problem doesn’t seem modest at all. I understand these concerns, and therefore, I’ve made this a top priority to help our homeowners navigate these financial challenges, so that many families as possible can stay in their homes. That’s what we’ve been working on, a plan to help homeowners.”
And if you need the sources, Cluster, all of these quotes came from the official George W. Bush White House archives.
Watson,
Bush did have deficits, of which I and other conservatives spoke out against and of which was right for Ryan to point out. However Bush’s deficits paled in comparison to Obama’s, and liberals like you railed against Bush for his deficits but are oddly silent with respect to Obama’s.
Secondly, there is a HUGE difference between promoting home ownership as Bush did, and handing out mortgages to anyone that walked in the door as what was happening. Bush called for more regulation on the GSE’s when he saw that happening and was ignored by republicans and democrats alike.
Cluster,
You’ll never get the liberals to understand – because they are mere regurgitation machines for DNC talking points. Just wait for January 20th, 2013 and the minute Romney is sworn in our liberals here will start carping about the deficit, the campaign in Afghanistan, the squeeze that low interest rates are putting on the elderly…
Watty what matters is when Bush and the GOP saw the trouble that Fannie and Freddie were getting into, they tried to stop it. Democrats prevented any corrective action not once but three times.
It is funny. Bush was President he gets the blame, but you give obAMATEUR a pass for the pathetic economy, the crappy recovery and the massive debt.
It is a shame that you are such a mindless drone, a lemming and a useful idiot. Facts are facts and you just want to ignore them because they rightfully expose your pResident for the incompetent man that he is with no leadership ability at all.
Pathetic.
and here we are again… GW pushed hard for low income home ownership, but he didn’t, but he did, but he didn’t …. I am sorry Obama hasn’t cleaned up that mess the Republicans left after 8 years, 2 wars, huge deficit spending… the list goes on. Here is a great link!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4a2_1229470578
Did I miss the part where Obama wasn’t President and the economy crashed under GW. Get with it Obama… clean up that mess the Republicans left. We want to put the party that left the mess back in to clean it up! Right… the best candidate the Republicans could come up with was Romney… a Liberal. The thinking was done for the Republicans. The powers that be said “Here’s your choice Republicans… Mitt Romney. Now let’s pretend that you actually had a choice, and vote for Mitt Romney… mitt romney… mitt… romney….vote for mitt romney… he is your choice… mittens.” LOL!!!! Excellent choice. You are replacing Liberal 1 with Liberal 2 and you think you have a choice…. yep… clear thinkers alright!
I am fairly sure that laughing is the previous coulterfan. He didn’t bring anything to the party then and still doesn’t. But you nailed it, they will blame Bush and GOP for everything yet never hold Pelosi, Reid, Obama accountable for anything.
And the difference is again that conservatives do hold our party accountable, that’s why the 2006 congress changed hands. The difference is that liberals like laughing will never hold his party responsible.
tirdy said, “Watty what matters is when Bush and the GOP saw the trouble that Fannie and Freddie were getting into, they tried to stop it. Democrats prevented any corrective action not once but three times.”
No, they and he didn’t. It’s pretty well documented that President Bush either ignored or did not take seriously what his own administration officials were telling him about the housing and credit bubble. It’s telling that as late as August 2007 he was still telling everyone that “the recent disturbances in the sub-prime mortgage industry are modest.” He did not view it as a serious problem until it was a crisis, at which point he complained, “How did this happen?” (Much like he ignored the Al Qaeda threats presented to him before 911.)
If anyone is a mindless drone, it is you. You prove it over and over by attacking anyone who presents a point of view different from your own. You aren’t even capable of responding with facts of your own, or rebutting those presented by others. You ignore the failings of your own party and conservatives in general, and blame everything that you perceive to be wrong on liberals. That is the very definition of a mindless drone. I am not giving President Obama a pass. I am responding to Cluster’s article above.
Watty, the mindless ignorant drone:
“No, they and he didn’t. It’s pretty well documented that President Bush either ignored or did not take seriously what his own administration officials were telling him about the housing and credit bubble.”
Once again Watty, your mindless regurgitation of dumbed down talking points (let’s just call them what they are LIES!) designed for the ignorant drones such as yourself, are your undoing.
Here is Bush doing “nothing” as you mindlessly regurgitate.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/10/20081009-10.html
You must take pleasure in being bitch-slapped all the time.
Bush was unable to advance any reforms thanks to DEMOCRATS, NAMELY DODD AND FRANK, stopping said reforms in committee rather than letting them get to Congress for debate. You continually listen to lies ans excuses from the left.
Pathetic.
1. Without the CRA, the housing boom and bust would not have happened.
2. Bush did compromise conservative philosophy to loan money to industry, but set it up so it would not only be repaid but IT MUST BE APPLIED TO REDUCTION OF THE DEFICIT. The money was paid back, and was not applied to the deficit.
3. Bush did veer too far from true conservative principles. He was not a perfect president—that is, unless you are comparing him to the absolute and utter disaster that a Gore or Kerry would have been, in which case he takes on an aura of absolute greatness.
But standing alone, just as a representative of Constitutional Conservatism, he fell short—which we said then and which we say now, which we have always acknowledged.
This is why I, for one, am not going to vote for him this year.
Cluster, even if GWB had wanted to come to the convention, Romney and Ryan would have kept their distance. It’s convenient to say that it was entirely Bush’s decision, but you are smarter than that. It is obvious from the convention itself that GWB was someone they wanted to avoid associating with.
Regarding home ownership, Bush most certainly did encourage and pave the way to ownership by low income families. Just because you deny it doesn’t make it so. I pulled up only a few of the MANY speeches and statements and ACTIONS GWB made during his administration. Go look up the archives yourself.
The point is that you are presenting a one-sided, very biased perspective. I’m not surprised, since you always present that view. But it is also amusing that you do the very thing you accuse liberals of doing.
You know absolutely nothing of what Bush would or would not have done, what he did or did not think, what anyone else did or did not think, or what anyone else would or would not have done.
All you do is lift the lid on the sewer you call a mind, fish around for whatever floats to the top, admire it, and present as yet another example of what passes for political commentary from one who lacks any kind of political compass that does not depend on virulent and irrational hatred of unknown people.
Well… let me see… this blog tends to ignore the facts that the Republicans pushed hard for low income home ownership, and then blames the Democrats. The comments then go on to point out how the Republicans shared responsibility… oh.. but let’s ignore the blog and get back to how it’s the Democrats fault… oh but let’s get back to how the Republicans share responsibility. WTF is wrong with you Republicans? You take a position of how it’s the Democrats fault and then take the contrary. I know. It’s perfectly clear to you. Feel free to ignore the facts and wade through the confusion. It’s the Democrats fault, no it’s the Republicans fault, no it’s the Democrats fault. It’s GW’s fault, no it’s not GW’s fault. Which position are you going to take Republicans? I know.. you are a bunch of clear thinkers. LOL!!!! What a bunch of screwed up people!
A Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican President and 6 years and an economic collapse. I’m curious… with that much power, why didn’t the Republicans use their power to place people in committees who could stop the crisis? Why didn’t the President use his veto power. What have the Republicans done in the last 4 years to fix the economy? Why didn’t the Republicans know a crisis was coming in 2008? How did GW respond to resolve the crisis?…. oh yeah… GW gave away 8 trillion dollars of socialist handouts to the banks to resolve the crisis… but yeah… Obama hasn’t finished cleaning up the turds after that last fiasco, so it’s his fault.
When you have something relevant to say, please let us know. Juvenile hyperbole is boring.
And amazingly enough the skyrocketing deficits started PRECISELY when Nancy got her hands on the gavel. And that first budget dems always attribute to bush was passed by a democratic house and senate, and signed by … Obama.
Though we really should have braved inevitable accusations of racism, hating the poor, etc., and just gone back and unwound every single law that was built on the CRA, instead of just slapping a bandaid on the securities problem by shifting them over to SEC oversight. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but no one was overseeing the oversight agency, and in retrospect it was just a a bandaid on the latest of many problems stemming from a terrible terrible law.
“Low income home ownership” does NOT automatically translate into federal social engineering experiments in which an industry is forced to act against its own best interests, nor does it have anything to do with any of the many disasters that resulted from these experiments.
You may not understand the difference, or, more likely, you don’t care and just love the smell of your own brain farts. No matter—what you say is useless, irrelevant, and signifies nothing more than your irrational hatred of people who represent a system you do not understand, in what you think is defense of a system you also do not understand.
But no matter—all that matters is that you get to be vile and vicious, that you can justify (in your own mind) any degree of lying, sliming, or hate-mongering, and THIS is what gets you off.
Charming……
Notice the completely amateurish and uninformed rhetoric coulterfan uses. Could there be any more clear example of how far off the rails liberals have gone? They had such a golden opportunity and they just completely blew it.
You have free will… enjoy your vote for Obamney!
It seems you aren’t taking sides here.
Who was your candidate?
giggles, are you saying there is no difference between Obama and Romney?
Are you admitting that the only reason you post here is because you love to be swinish and vitriolic, but have no political compass at all?
It’s an original Cluster post, and as such, a silly question.
the whole flying monkey show has flapped in, Media matters must be getting a sosos money infusion again to fund TROLLS R us.
No matter how much proof you offer to these TROLLS they are oblivious to the truth………USEFUL IDIOTS indeed.
f you follow Glenn Beck, you know who Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven are. They are the dynamic teaching duo who championed the revolutionary idea of restarting the U.S. economy by collapsing the system and remaking it into one more favorable to the unions and socialist ideals. And that’s done by getting as many people on public assistance as possible.
CLINT SPEAKS: Obama ‘greatest hoax ever perpetrated on American people’…
YUP……….as PT Barnum said a SUCKER is born every minute there is proof of that on this site…………
But…but…but….dolf once explained that we should ignore what we are told and what we see happening, because Frances Piven is OLD.
Hmmmmmm
Yes, freakzo, you and your kind have made it quite clear how you have chosen to spin this. Over and over again.
But what you have NOT done is tell us what Obama has done to correct it.
What laws have been passed to make sure this never happens again?
What bad laws, of federal social engineering, have been repealed under Obama to release lenders from legal pressures to make bad loans.
What specific regulations have been imposed to accomplish what?
Are you absolutely stuck in the Bush years, or can you pull your head out and tell us what Obama has done to FIX any of this?
And no, I do not mean his brilliant strategy of getting out of debt by borrowing more money, or cutting the deficit by spending more money, or getting out of a hole by digging faster.
I mean, what laws and policies that you keep blaming Bush for have been repealed, canceled, corrected, removed from law?
TALKING POINT ALERT!!! TALKING POINT ALERT!!! BEWARE! THE FOLLOWING COMMENT IS NOTHING BUT A DNC TALKING POINT
Nice… “are you stuck in the Bush years, and what has Obama done to fix it?” I am as disappointed as everybody else that Obama hasn’t cleaned up the Bush mess in 4 years.
TALKING POINT ALERT!!! TALKING POINT ALERT!!! BEWARE! THE FOLLOWING COMMENT IS NOTHING BUT A DNC TALKING POINT
sleep…sleep…sleep…romney didn’t flip flop on health care… sleep… romney didn’t flip flop on health care…sleep…. my goodness Republicans are gullible….WARNING… ALERT!!!! TALKING POINT!!!! WARNING!!!! sleep…..BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Watson,
You seem to be going out of your way to try and convince yourself that Bush was not welcome at the GOP convention which is actually kind of funny. Do you remember the video tribute to both Bush I & II?
Bozo,
If you listened to the video, Bush promoted home ownership by implementing some fed policies to QUALIFIED home buyers. Do you know what DTI’s and FICO scores are. Have you ever heard of no doc loans? Ignoring the scores and implementing no doc loans were not part of Bush’s program, and yet they were done everyday and that is a big part of the problem. Now where I do disagree with Bush was his encouragement of the GSE’s to buy those loans on the secondary market, which only served to encourage banks to ignore their standards knowing that there was a guaranteed buyer on the secondary market. But the fact remains, Bush DID NOT deregulate the financial markets, Clinton did. And Bush did warn the GSE’s numerous times about being irresponsible and the need for more regulation, and had they listened, we may have avoided this problem. I will also point out that Obama fought for low income home ownership himself in Chicago and even took banks to court accusing them of red lining. Any comments on that?
Did you hear that? I disagreed with Bush, as I did on a number of occasions, specifically his amnesty plan. You might want to try that when it comes to your own party, because there is actually quite a bit to disagree with.
Enjoy the read:
President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/03/with-landmark-lawsuit-barack-obama-pushed-banks-to-give-subprime-loans-to-chicagos-african-americans/#ixzz25sgC7Nl8
It’s actually the musings of a muddled mind. You need to get your terminology correct.
Here’s another sad fact to the collapse of 2008. Obama came in and made it WORSE!! By throwing an $800 billion dollar stimulus to cronies and supporters and by creating $1 trillion dollar + deficits for as far as the eye can see. And that was done with a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House.
What say you coulterfan?
Clearly the only thing for you Libs to do is to not vote for Bush this time. He has done nothing in the last four years to correct this mess and earn your vote.
But why are you so upset that the Republican Party had a forward-looking convention about the future of the country and you had a Golden Oldies blast from the past?
You get to decide how to run yours. Ours, not so much. We made a decision based on our vision for the future of the nation, and you chose to pay homage to the heroes of your past. It’s so weird that you are trying to make a big deal out of the fact that we didn’t have the same problem you do’ which is no new ideas and dependence on the fan clubs do the past.
It’s really funny to watch you spin your wheels in frustration, and to see what YOU find important. Is it addressing the debt? No, it’s that Romney went to prep school. Is it reining in our out of control spending? No, it is that we did not spend enough time looking backward instead of forward at our convention.
Oh boy – this isn’t going to help –
Democratic Senate candidate Bob Kerrey said Thursday that he hates the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act and that his own businesses might drop employee insurance and pay the federal fine for doing so if the mandate goes into effect in 2014.
Kerrey said wealthy Americans pay their fair share in taxes. And he said President Barack Obama made a big mistake by not following the recommendations of his own bipartisan budget deficit commission.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/07/winning-top-senate-dem-recruit-slams-obamacare
Cluster said, “Secondly, there is a HUGE difference between promoting home ownership as Bush did, and handing out mortgages to anyone that walked in the door as what was happening. Bush called for more regulation on the GSE’s when he saw that happening and was ignored by republicans and democrats alike.”
In June 2001 GWB said “We need to do more to promote homeownership in America,” and announced the “American Dream Downpayment Fund,” which “will provide $200 million in downpayment assistance to help 130,000 low-income families buy homes. In addition, my administration announced earlier this week a program to allow people who receive low income rental assistance to bundle a year’s worth of payments and use the money for a downpayment, or to make monthly payments on a new mortgage.”
In June 2002 the White House issued a press release stating “Today, President Bush announced a new goal to help increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million before the end of the decade. The President’s aggressive housing agenda will help dismantle the barriers to homeownership by providing down payment assistance, increasing the supply of affordable homes, increasing support for self-help homeownership programs, and simplifying the home buying process & increasing education. The President also issued “America’s Homeownership Challenge” to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to join in his effort to increase the number of minority homeowners by taking concrete steps to tear down the barriers to homeownership that face minority families.”
He had eight years, Cluster. And it ended with the biggest economic collapse in your and my lifetime, of which weeks earlier he claimed was merely a “disturbance” in the sub-prime mortgage industry. His own staff have gone on the record stating that Bush himself and his administration either ignored warning signs or were slow to do anything about it. “No one wanted to stop that bubble,” said GWB’s first chief economic advisor. “It would have conflicted with the president’s own policies.”
And you sit here and essentially claim that GWB was an innocent bystander. That’s leadership, alright.
Um… I’m not getting this… there are so many posts here which absolutely show the Republican propanda of the Republicans trying to continue juicing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and yet the Republicans keep mouthing the party line. Just watch the videos above, follow the links or delete anything which proves the party line is based on false premises. We are in serious trouble. The Republicans push John McCain, Sarah Palin and Willard Romney. I’ve noticed a couple of my posts disproving the lies have been deleted from this thread. By the way…. whatever happened to all of those “Death Clinics” which were going to pop up with Obama care? Oh yeah… I forgot … Republicans believe in fairy tales.What a terrible way to go through life! Thank goodness the Republicans can’t mount a winning contender for the Presidency. Willard Romney…. the election is over. When do you think those clear thinking Republicans will realize it?
Watson,
I can’t emphasize enough that promoting home ownership with federal assistance to QUALIFIED buyers, is a hell of a lot different than irresponsibly handing out mortgages to NON QUALIFIED buyers with high DTI’s and low FICO scores. Add stated income loans (no doc loans) to the mix, and you have a big problem. Bush saw this, and warned Congress who did nothing. That’s where the problem lies and Republican and Democrats alike share the blame. Conservatives voted our guys out, Liberals rewarded their guys. I am in the business and I saw it happen first hand
One proven lie is that Bush deregulated the financial markets. That is one you just can’t get around.
laughing,
Again, if you have any relevant commentary, we’d love to hear from you. Just an aside, you do realize that Obamacare is not even 20% implemented right? Or did that one get past you?
On other thing my dear Watson,
Bush’s home ownership program NEVER relaxed DTI ratios or Fico scores. Just FYI. Again I am in the business. What Bush did wrong, was encourage Fannie and Freddie to be more active in the secondary market. They took that and ran with it, but again, Bush tried to regulate and was stopped.
Cluster, there you go using FACTS instead of the dumbed down talking points watty, denny and bozo continuously regurgitate from the Democrats.
You should know by know these mindless drones can’t think for themselves!
Cluster says “But the fact remains, Bush DID NOT deregulate the financial markets, Clinton did”.
The bill was the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, created and sponsored by Republicans all. The Senate narrowly passed it along partisan lines. The House’s version passed with a more bipartisan vote but not before much wrangling, or without a Democrat, Rep. John Dingell, warning that it would allow banks to become “too big to fail,” which ultimately would require a federal bailout.
Clinton ultimately signed Gramm Leach Bliley into law, but be clear: the financial deregulation of the late 1990s was conceived, engineered and urged by Republicans.
wow denny some circumventing logic there!
You again give Democrats a pass. While the same logic could apply to Democrats in other cases where you still only blame Republicans. Too bad you are guided by dumbed down talking points. I guess you will not criticize DEMOCRATS as well here in this blog. You will only criticize non-proggies.
The FACT is as I and many others pointed out. When it came time to try and regulate Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s activities in which they purchased risky loans and defaulting loans and sold them as sound investments, DEMOCRATS stopped Bush and the GOP each and every time.
It is time to stop being a mindless drone denny. You have been proven to be a lemming again.
BTW, denny, the bill would have NEVER become law if Clinton had not signed it in the first place. He gets the blame.
I like the way you try to blame the deficits from 2007 to 2009 on Bush, where the budgets were conceived , engineered and urged by DEMOCRATS who had control of the House. But of course using your same stupid logic in that case, you will not cast such blame at all.
Pathetic
It doesn’t matter what the vote was denny. What matters is that Clinton signed it!
I noticed how you ran from your bending over backwards to give DEMOCRATS a pass and avoid giving any criticism to DEMOCRATS at all costs.
Your template is blame Republican President excuse Democrat House and Senate and excuse Democrat pResident blame Republican House leadership or Senate leadership. If all three legislative groups have Democrat leadership blame past republican President or the TEA Party.
You don’t even try to hide it anymore.
Pathetic.
Tired beat me to it, but he is exactly right. Funny how you blame Bush for everything Pelosi did, but hold Clinton unaccountable for what the republican congress did. You showed your true colors.
The point of this entire post was to expose the lie that Bush deregulated the financial markets, and when he actually called for more regulation, he was ignored. His mistake was to encourage Fannie and Freddie to be more aggressive in the secondary market and Franklin Raines took it from there. Google Franklin Raines, you might be surprised by what you learn.
The bill was the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, created and sponsored by Republicans all. The Senate narrowly passed it along partisan lines.
Pants on fire liar, Dennis. The final Senate vote on Gramm Leach Bliley was 90 – 8.
The House’s version passed with a more bipartisan vote but not before much wrangling
Gotta call BS on you again, Dennis. The final House vote was 362 – 55.
Clinton ultimately signed Gramm Leach Bliley into law
Enthusiastically signed into law following enthusiastic support by his Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers
but be clear: the financial deregulation of the late 1990s was conceived, engineered and urged by Republicans.
That’s the only really true thing you said in your entire post, Dennis. But support for it was more bi-partisan that just about anything that comes out of Washington. And the kinds of Republicans that “engineered and urged” financial reform, like Richard Lugar of Indiana, are being replaced, thanks to the Tea Party. and, IIRC, much to your dismay.
Spook, I am correct. You mistook the vote on the conference report of the bill for the actual vote of the passage of the bill.
The Senate passed the bill on May 6 by a 54–44 vote along mostly partisan lines (53 Republicans and 1 Democrat in favor; 44 Democrats opposed) http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00105#top
Spook, I am correct. You mistook the vote on the conference report of the bill for the actual vote of the passage of the bill.
You ARE correct, Dennis. My bad. It was late, we had just gotten back from a long weekend trip, and I guess I wasn’t thinking too clearly.
Ruh Ro. Or Meep Meep, which ever.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/09/have-the-conventions-changed-the-race.html
LOL Mitch,
Is Andrew Sulkivan that notable conservative? Would you like to hear what Dick Morris has to say?
Is Andrew a lover of yours Mitch? You seem to be awfully fond of him.
Let me tell you something else about Sullivan. He is a real conservative and the stats that he displays on his website are 3rd party. Which means they have credibility. YOU, on the other hand ARE a cluster. A cluster fck. So spare the world your contrived machinations. The graphs that I linked to are accurate. Come November, when the president wins a 2nd term what are you going to say then old man?
Wow, sorry to anger you old man. I didn’t realize you were so fond of Andrew. He is your type though isn’t he?
You mean a rational, sane, objective, attatched to reality conservative? Yes. Or is that comment some snide dig because he’s gay. And married.
tirdy said, “Cluster, there you go using FACTS instead of the dumbed down talking points watty, denny and bozo continuously regurgitate from the Democrats.”
Once again, absolutely no facts or meaningful rebuttal from tirdy. Mindless drone, indeed. I realize B4V’s standards aren’t very high, but it is truly amazing that they allow you to be a featured author here.
watty the liar: “Once again, absolutely no facts or meaningful rebuttal from tirdy.”
Uh, you ignored the FACTS and made an absurd claim. At least you admitted you are a mindless drone. I am a guest author not “featured”. But you haven’t argued the FACTS – you can’t argue the facts. You just regurgitate the liberal spin – the dumbed down talking points.
You made a claim that “Bush did nothing”. I proved you wrong again. All you can do is just deny it. You haven’t proved anything which is typical for you.
It is amazing that you keep coming back for more. Do you like being proved wrong (or in your case bitch-slapped) so often? You must.
Here’s an example of the type of home ownership legislation that President Bush got enacted. The American Dream Downpayment Initiative (ADDI) was signed into law on December 16, 2003. It authorized up to $200 million annually. Funds were appropriated for fiscal years 2004-2008. ADDI provided funds to all fifty states and to local participating jurisdictions that had a population of at least 150,000 or qualified for an allocation of at least $50,000 under the ADDI formula. ADDI is administered as a part of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, a formula grant program.
ADDI helped first-time homebuyers with the biggest hurdle to homeownership: downpayment and closing costs. The program was created to assist low-income first-time homebuyers in purchasing single-family homes by providing funds for downpayment, closing costs, and rehabilitation carried out in conjunction with the assisted home purchase.
It is obvious, perhaps even to Cluster, that the entire intent of the bill was to encourage more home ownership among low income individuals–the ones most likely to have trouble paying their mortages.
Watson,
You are completely embarrassing yourself and twisting yourself into knots trying to find something that is just not there. I am in this industry, and can tell you that a lot of middle class, fairly high income people lost there homes because of stated income loans where they were able to purchase mini McMansions. Then, when they saw their equity climb substantially, they took out a HELOC and went to Hawaii.
Give it up Watson. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Watson,
Here’s another example. There were a lot of ARM’s, adjustable rate loans done in 2005 and 2006, with very low “teaser” rates that allowed a lot of people to buy more house than they should have. When those rates adjusted in 5 years, they no longer could afford their mortgage. There is a whole lot of that, and Bush was trying to stop those teaser rates with regulation.