Fannie and Freddie: Barney Frank Finally Comes Home to the Facts
by Larry KudlowCan you teach an old dog new tricks? In politics, the answer is usually no. Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again. Most have no common sense, and most never acknowledge that they were wrong.
But one huge exception to this rule is Democrat Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
For years, Frank was a staunch supporter of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government housing agencies that played such an enormous role in the financial meltdown that thrust the economy into the Great Recession. But in a recent CNBC interview, Frank told me that he was ready to say goodbye to Fannie and Freddie.
“I hope by next year we’ll have abolished Fannie and Freddie,” he said. Remarkable. And he went on to say that “it was a great mistake to push lower-income people into housing they couldn’t afford and couldn’t really handle once they had it.” He then added, “I had been too sanguine about Fannie and Freddie.”
When I asked Frank about a long-term phase-out plan that would shrink Fannie and Freddie portfolios and mortgage-purchase limits, and merge the agencies into the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for a separate low-income program that would get government out of middle-income housing subsidies, he replied: “Larry, that, I think, is exactly what we should be doing.”
Frank also said that any federal housing guarantees should be transparently priced and put on budget. But he added that the private sector must be encouraged to re-enter housing finance just as the government gradually withdraws from it.
Some would say Frank’s mea culpa is politically motivated in advance of an election where bailout nation and big government are public enemies number one and two. Of course, poll after poll shows that the $150 billion Fan-Fred bailout, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could rise to $400 billion, is detested by voters and taxpayers everywhere.
In fact, these failed government agencies are in such bad shape that they can’t even pay Uncle Sam the dividends owed under the conservatorship deal reached two years ago. That’s right. In order to pay a $1.8 billion dividend on Treasury department stock, Fan and Fred had to borrow $1.5 billion from — you guessed it — the Treasury.
Then there’s this head-scratching detail: In an absolutely outrageous move last Christmas Eve, President Obama signed off on $42 million in bonuses for the top twelve Fannie and Freddie executives, including $6 million apiece for the two CEOs. (Hat tip to attorney Stephen B. Meister.)
Voters are on to all this. So politics may indeed be motivating Barney Frank’s turnaround. But I’m going to credit him with more than that.
I think Chairman Frank watched these government behemoths descend into hell and then witnessed the financial catastrophe that ensued. And I think he has come to realize that the whole system of federal affordable-housing mandates that was central to the real-estate collapse — including the mandates on Fannie and Freddie and the myriad bad decisions made by private banks and other lenders in response to the government’s overreach — simply needs to be abolished.
Noteworthy is the fact that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has come to a similar conclusion. Geithner told a recent Washington conference on the future of housing finance that the system needs fundamental change. He said, “We will not support a return to the system where private gains are subsidized by taxpayer losses.”
Of course, the withdrawal of housing markets from government programs, and the onset of a reinvigorated private sector for providing mortgages, must be done gradually over a period of years. But it is possible that the federal mortgage madness is coming to an end.
We will have to see if Congress really does say good-bye to Fan and Fred, as Republicans like Jeb Hensarling are advocating. Equally important, we will have to see if the federal affordable-housing mandates created by Congress and implemented by HUD and banking regulators are similarly repealed.
And then we will have to see if reformed federally guaranteed housing insurance includes larger down-payments, stricter underwriting standards, and greater reliance on private capital markets, lenders, and insurers. In other words, we need to see if housing will be restored to a market-based system and removed from the government-backed system that has proved so disastrous.
The broader lesson here is that government planning doesn’t work. And if left to their own devices, market processes will work. I don’t know if President Obama gets this. But my hat goes off to a man who does, Chairman Barney Frank.
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159 Comments
Don't fall for Bawney's schtick. He sees a day of reckoning coming and is trying to avoid taking responsibility for his culpability in it. He may want to dissolve Fannie and Freddie suddenly, so he says, but I guarantee you he has another replacement for them in his head. Liberals don't disband groups or bureaucracies, they just give them a make over so they can get a do over.
With dirty politicians like Barney Frank we don't need enemies!
Too little. Too late.
Never another democrat decision on the economy or foreign affairs. They simply cannot be trusted.
Broken clocks and all that, WOW had to double check my spelling.
Barney fwank is like a guy who shoots your dog and then promises not to shoot it again.
Sorry barney. The damage is already done.
Too little and too late. Barney had no vision but sure created nightmares.
I know, it's always and all ways Bush's fault!!!
Wonderful. In other BREAKING NEWS OJ Simpson says that perhaps he too has been sanguine and maybe he shouldn't have chopped off two heads.
The perpetration of this depression goes on abetted. Subprime was a criminal enterprise. The destruction of Middle America is by design. Believe otherwise at your peril.
It's very difficult to imagine a Liberal Democrat eliminating a bureaucracy that is so powerful and incideous like Fannie and Freddie. I am skeptical.
Freddie and Fannie are done, there really isn't another option other than closing it down. Interest rates are so low, so refi option is no longer available to hide the loses. Freddie/Fannie now has to exist on the payments of the mortgagees. It's been a musical chairs game and now the music has stopped for the forseeable future.
Barney can't be trusted…. hes just trying to be more popular. I think his record speaks for itself.
Who hasnt seen this "change of heart" coming from the radical animals like Bawney? Watch and see kids more and more will change their tune to in an attempt to win public sentiment as time narrows to Nov 2 elections. Reid is doing it over the ground zero mosque, you and I know he doesnt care, his action of the past prove it. Just like Bawneys actions prove this is nothing more than a ploy. Do Not Fall For Any Of These Tricks By Any Politician VOTE THEM ALL OUT On Both Sides!
I cannot do it alone to spread the word about http://www.savingtherepublic.com 's tactics and neither can you to stop the animals in DC, the finge media and special interests. But together we can ALL make a difference and stop them the question is what are you prepared to do? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7jsKLXqA0g
Apology accepted: now go to JAIL where you belong.
Accepting apologies and forgiveness are fine. But they don't take the place of PUNISHMENT for the crimes committed.
November is the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF OF LIVES! We ALL have to work at getting a TRUE conservative congress in place. Help a campaign, donate, get a yard sign, get a bumper sticker, get a t-shirt, write letters to the editor of your local paper, attend rallies and VOTE in November… DO SOMETHING!!! Then we can start working on 2012 and get this socialist President and his regime out of office!
http://remembernovember.com/
"When I asked Frank about a long-term phase-out plan that would shrink Fannie and Freddie portfolios and mortgage-purchase limits, and merge the agencies into the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for a separate low-income program that would get government out of middle-income housing subsidies, he replied: “Larry, that, I think, is exactly what we should be doing.”
Typical answer.
Translation?
Bury the evidence…………….
If our President is bypassing congress, and if most of them are bought and selling their votes, then the only solution is to uphold the constitution. Article 1 section 2 The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every Thirty-thousand. So if we are to assume that the Republicans will win the House of Reps then they must increase the membership from 435 as it has remained since 1929 to a least 1000 members 1776 would be better. Then in one swift movement the "special interests" are eliminated. Power is taken away from the President and Congress and put right back with the people. If Madison, Washington, and Jefferson wanted representation to increase every 10 years with the census shouldn't we put our faith in them rather than the status quo of the 435 members. I saw your website you can visit http://www.thirty-thousand.org If you think that is an increase in Government would the Obama admistration have done it by now? And if you think it would never pass the Senate and Office of the President it doesn't have to only the House of Reps determins it's size not the Senate or President.
Too bad Barney Frank and the other 9 of the 10 members of congress is Massachusettes cannot be voted out due to "gerrymandering." Amazing how Massachusettes can elected a Republican govenror and a Republican Senator but not one Republican member in congress.
Hmmm. Come to think of it, wasn't one of bawney's "partners" an executive for FM?
Good call, CL.
Barney Fwank is basically a liar trying to get a distraction going.
funny how things change… This clown had more to do with this fin. crisis than any one other person could… NOW affordble housing is unwise??? damn barney.. your about 3 trillion dollars late
Need we say more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Certainly all party's have culpability regarding this debacle, but the dem's sure look professional at it.
Exactly!
Throw up a smoke screen, buy time, bury the evidence.
Kudlow, you're saying that for admitting to a mistake when it becomes clear to everyone it was disastrous, Barney Frank, whose arrogance knows no bounds, should be lauded? Well, he cost us trillions. Screw him.
Screw him?
Nah.
I'll pass on that one………..
Maybe if the Republicans gain control in November , they will call for Franks and Dodd to testify before congress about to their incompetence and lack of over site that was a key factor in the collapse of the housing market and the economy.
O M G g g g gawd,………. Bwaney has had an epiphany,…………..he's becoming a CONSERVATIVE.
Hide the children…………what ever will we doooooooooooooooooo?:-D
He he he !
.
My question to Larry is; How in the hell could you understand Bawney Fwank with all those marbles in his mouth? +Hanzo+
Once a liar, always a liar.
This Communist gay fool has got to go.
Never Forget.
Jimmah Carter, and the Community Reinvestment Act.
I would not be so trusting that Barney has gotten religion. I suspect he has seen how to control companies through the bailout process and now thinks that is a better way than the Fred/Fan way of the past. Make no mistake Barney has not changed his goal, just his approach to that goal.
Barney Frank pushed for the conditions that caused the mess. If it wasn't for the fact that much of the public does understand that much of this mess was his doing as well as Dodd and other Dems, I doubt he would be saying what he's saying now.
"Elections have consequences." So do congressional votes.
Those aren't marbles…
Stone him at Ground Zero.
This cockroach can dance. He's helped destroy the country and now he wants, and is receiving, kudos for realizing it.
YES Honest Bwaney has got to go………………to jail! That IS why he is comming OUT right now.
If he is unable to destroy the evidence he is culpable somewhere in that mountain of work he has
done on the House Financial Services Committee.
He's a scared little weenie !
.
Actually, I'm more into Darth Vader's apology acceptance from Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back…
Believe it or not, Mjolnir, I'm trying to be charitable here, to the little teabagger!
+Hanzo+
Yea……. Idn't he soooo smart?:-D……… Perhaps his cellmate will admire his intellect.
.
It's not your nature Hanzo, what have you done with the real Hanz…….?:-)
see bawney talk,see bawney dance,see bawney run,from the fricken fire he started and then threw gas on,fricken priceless,oh then see bawney lie his way out of this.lol.poor dumb elitist moron.
oooouuuu I like it,,,,,,can we have him wear a burqua? : )
Bwarney bwings a whole new meaning to the twerm tweabagger…………..
" And he went on to say that “it was a great mistake to push lower-income people into housing they couldn’t afford "
Hmm, a great mistake??? I would say it was Great Stupidity!!!
I think this is great because even if Frank is weaseling, we now have a direct interview with him denouncing Fannie and Freddie and acknowledging they don't work. Plus info on their massive bonuses. Yes perhaps Frank sees the voter winds… who knows. Maybe he finally matured enough to stop being a progressive. Again who knows. But the fact he admits these things are failings is good enough for me.
BTW is there a source for the complete interview?
Added:
Here's the original article with a link to the interview http://www.cnbc.com/id/38791383
"……Frank also said that any federal housing guarantees should be transparently priced and put on budget. But he added that the private sector must be encouraged to re-enter housing finance just as the government gradually withdraws from it………."
In other words we should do AGAIN,……..
what Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton did to get us in this mess in the first time.
When you want all the horses out of the barn in the first place,………..
it's easy to say the barn doors should be closed after,……
the horses have been scattered to the four winds,………….
At least Barney Frank is still just being a liberal Democrat,………..but,..
as for Kudlow,……
he is either dumber than a box of rocks,….or,…………
the biggest phony going.
Perhaps since he isn't getting buggered by anyone on the board anymore he just doesn't care about the organizations.
Barney is throwing his children under the bus in a vain attempt to save his political career.
Don't let him off the hook – these are his programs that are dragging EVERYone down. Barney belongs in jail. See how much money Barney's reelection funds have received from Freddy and Fanny, right up there with BO. Given that we can't get any crooked politician in jail (Blago, Black-snake and Maxine Waters all belong in jail) Nancy has lied so many times I don't think any one can keep count. I will simply hope to see Barney sent home as soon as possible, and at least to be stripped of his chairmanship.
I don't think Bawny is hunting wabbits. I think he's hunting men dwessed in dwag!!
Sorry but getting gov out of the housing business is the best thing for the market. And what business is it of anyone's to put the horses in a barn to begin with when they should be free. They are more constructive that way.
The mess was caused by the government creating a toilet to dump bad loans into and using the tax payer as the guarantee of bad loans NONE of which is the purpose of government.
Yes open the barn doors! Yes let the horses go free!
My comments on this absurdity of Barney changing his mind has to with Barney trying to saving his own ass. When someone with honor finally retakes control of this criminal enterprise we call a government. There will be honest investigations into these entities and someone will go to jail.
In another thought, Are not bonuses meant to reward employees for bettering the bottom line. The last I heard neither Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac made a dime last year. In fact they lost billions. Would this not indicate that those that run them owe us some of their salary back?
Barney Frank has committed criminal negligence as the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee for repeatedly fending off attempts to investigate Fanny and Freddy. He deserves to be in jail.
Damn it Johnny,……
I should have read your posts before I wrote mine,…………
It took me twenty lines to say exactly what you said,……..
in just a few words,…..and a lot wittier.
Isn't he the pot calling the kettle black??
Well, Larry, if you say so. But I still won't be satisfied until this disaster of a hack tells us everything he knows in front of a Congressional committee. In the seat right next to Dodd.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"
Yeah, like that's ever going to happen. We have foxes, watching the foxes that are suppose to be policing the foxes that are watching the hen house. (and that still probably not enough levels of treasonous atrocities that are being committed in D.C.)
Obfuscation.
Politicians practice that as a fine art form.
Who is this guy and what did he do with the real Barney Frank?
Unlikely. You righties don't have the political guts to even attempt something close to that.
Frank, Dodd and Waters went to the mat defending FMA and FMAC in 2004-05 when Franklin Raines was caught red-handed cooking the books and prevented reform.
Robert Rubin and Larry Summers changed the rules in the Clinton Administration so that Goldman Sachs, et al could operate as commercial banks and leverage up the crummy mortgage backed securities 40:1. Rubin went to Citibank after that and they made the most leveraged derivatives — TARP was forced onto all the other banks to hide the fact that Citibank was the one who was going to fail and have a run on the bank bringing it down. Saudi billionaire Prince Al-aweed was a 10% shareholder of Citibank.
.
It's hilarious you think there might actually be "investigations."
Is it April 1st already?
Sorry, I don't believe him–he's running for his political life. Barney will say whatever he needs to say according to how the political winds are blowing. However–don't get me wrong–no matter what caused him to change his mind, I'll take it–he virtually single-handledly created the mortgage bust (and knowingly lied about how the shape of FM and FM, saying it was great–but then he was sleeping with the ceo ).
The answer in politics is you can' t teach an old dog new tricks. The trick for politicians is to hope voters don't remember. I'll forgive you this once Kudlow.
Remember in November
Seems to me that if you wanted to forgive a bunch of mortgages, this process would be a great place to do it.
100% in agreement. They will disband, but simply shift to some other poorly run, government created monstrosity that has to conform to another 3000 pages of not needed levels of bureaucracy. You all ready have to sign you name and initials about 50 times to process all the disclaimers and legal bull associated with getting a mortgage. What's next?
No acceptance or acknowledgment of his or Chris Dodd's role in the "oversight" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He then added, “I had been too sanguine about Fannie and Freddie.” The word sanguine per the dictionary = cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident. Yeah… that's his only mistake… right. Someone who is an oversight role should never be cheerfully optimistic. More like he was in an "overlook" role.
Will you people in his district WAKE UP and vote this loser out of power!
C (ommunist) P (arty) – Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.
Those ain't marbles.
I guess there is nothing left in Fannie and Freddie to steal. Off to the next Tax Payer funded venture for the Democrat Thieving to start all over.
There are NO good Democrats and RINOs are almost as bad. Yet Conservatives running for Office are not being funded in many important races around the Country. Typical. See Paul Smith in the 5th District of California.
Larry Kudlow is the epitome of the "nice guy" who really wants to see the good in everyone. He would make a wonderful next door neighbor but a very poor cop.
Frank's "sudden" realization that Fannie and Freddie hurt the very people they were intended to help comes at a remarkably opportune time – reelection. It's not that Frank fears losing his seat, Massachusetts is a solid liberals only state, but he fears reprisals from a new Congress that will remember his stonewalling and his vicious attacks on his opponents.
For Frank to see a real problem in a government planned economy is so out of character for him and so inconsistent with his general views on government power that it is impossible to take it seriously. It would be like Hugo Chavez saying "Maybe nationalizing the oil industry wasn't such a great idea after all".
Can a lifelong socialist change his spots? The Hades Weather Service is not predicting snow.
This guy is simply doing what BHO's handlers are telling him to do. Frank is not an intelligent man, as evidenced by his rants in the past. Honestly, why does anyone care what he says?
Who wants to bet Bwarney has to consistently resist the urge to call it "Fannie Mac?"
Go figure. And the premise that he didn't know exactly what was going on is as laughable as pretending that this POTUS doesn't know what he is doing either.
Larry, an apology from him is not enough. What Barney and friends did was criminal. They need to pay for their crimes, and pay restitution. How many millions did they get for mis-managing Fannie and Freddie? How big a fine should they pay?
No American should be happy until they are investigated, tried, and have paid the piper.
It's absurd to think that everyone doesn't now know how the housing deception was made whole, starting from the Carter Era CRA 1977 onto the Clinton 1998 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act 1933 bank regulations. The pursuit of the mythical unicorn of redlining got it all rolling, and then it was off to the races, anybody could own their own home, no work needed, sign here.
Progressives must think everyone is as stupid as they.
Big government has screwed everything up in our country, it is all traceable to government trying to mold, shape people and their behavior. Equal outcome.
We need to take a weed whacker to the federal government. The sad thing is both parties are to blame … they both value their seats in the politburo more than America and her people's freedoms.
Unfortunately, we have none to blame but ourselves, and we must fix it. The rebirth of America starts in 2010 …
Where is the genius in teaching an old dog to stop raiding the hen house once the chickens are all gone?
Bawney is your typical lying politician, who wouldn't know the truth if it were sticking him in his ….
Sigh, but we made them, by not paying attention, just playing politicos like they wanted us to. Hanging on every useless manufacturered progressive crisis that they could cook up and use to divide America. Separate us into groups.
So all the Bawneys in the end, is our fault. We forgot to stick up for America, our values, our first principles, and got too self interested to care what was really going on around us, what our lack of interest was doing to us. And now it may be too late …
Yeah, they have to abolish their slush fund agencies to cover up decades of crookery.
"I think Chairman Frank watched these government behemoths descend into hell and then witnessed the financial catastrophe that ensued. And I think he has come to realize that the whole system of federal affordable-housing mandates that was central to the real-estate collapse — including the mandates on Fannie and Freddie and the myriad bad decisions made by private banks and other lenders in response to the government’s overreach — simply needs to be abolished."
Let me tell you what I think Mr. Kudlow…. I think that Frank and his companions, including Clinton, Clinton and Dodd and the rest of the gang of thieves purposely instigated, obstructed and participated in a scheme to provide a way to change the "discussion" to "it's the economy stupid" at the exact moment that Hillary need it as she run for President. But things didn't work out exactly like was planned…. and so along came Obama and hijacked the plan.
Correct me if I am wrong… but aren't some of the key players that helped run AIG, Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac in the ground now working in the current administration to "fix" it? Were these not some of the same people put in key positions at the behest of or who had connections the exact people that we are talking about?
After the cow has been milked for all it is worth and the steer is as fat as it will ever get… it is time to send them to the butcher. So goes Fanny the cow and Freddie the steer.
Enjoy your hamburger Barney.
I'll go wayyyyyyy out on a limb here, and give everyone ample opportunity to whack it off. Your statement?
"Big government has screwed everything up in our country, it is all traceable to government trying to mold, shape people and their behavior. Equal outcome. "
Here is my unvarnished, unbiased, unbigoted opinion, but I'll open the door for the race baiters anyway.
Behind every failed government social program, is a big mouthed Jessie Jackson, or Al Sharpton with a bullhorn.
Talk about a toe tapper! Bwaney Fwank would be a sure bet for winning on Dancing with the Czars. I didn't know that someone that large and out of shape could do a back flip with such ease.
Jobs
To get America’s economy moving again, we must return to the supply side, strong dollar policies that have worked in the past.
America’s economic woes are not due to the excesses of capitalism, as the left claims, but instead due to abandoning supply-side, strong dollar policies for easy credit, deficit spending, and stimulus. We need a new economic policy to promote a robust economic recovery and a new, long-term economic boom. This requires a sweeping replacement of current policies.
A right delayed is a right denied.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
http://remembernovember.com/
I do bewieve Bawney had an ownership intwest in a Mortgage company in Bawston that catered to Wowe Income bawrrowers. The company car was a Porche. I also bewieve it went bwankwupt. Made $ millions of cwappy woans that defaulted.
Hang the man from a sour apple tree. He lies with every breath and has nothing but ill will for the American way of life.
Right on. This Kudlow guy is starting to creep me out. Who thinks like that, and how do we fix them?
The private polling must be pretty devastating if Barney's suddenly doing a 180 on Fannie and Freddie. I'm guessing he'll suddenly develop amnesia again after November 2 if he survives.
"………….This Kudlow guy is starting to creep me out……."
the more I read some of his stuff,……..
the more I wonder,……..
where does this guy stand,…..?????
right,………I want the real Hanzo back
Wanted: trillions of gallons of whitewash to cover over trillions of dollars stolen by liberals like Mr. Frank who now are seeking to avoid any accountability. I fail to see why someone who has committed crimes on the scale this guy has committed them is still walking around and isn't inhabiting a bunch of dog food cans like Jimmy Hoffa. Where's the justice for us? This guy needs to be put through a meat grinder and sold for consumption by pets; at least we could say we got something out of him that was worth our money.
I don't understand this. We know who these criminals are – what are we waiting for? We all know what must be done. Our forefathers would have just stepped up, formed a posse and hung these people from the nearest tree. You can wring your hands and talk about "due process" and "rights" and "juries of his peers" all you want but none of that will get back the trillions of dollars and lives destroyed by these people.
We will never get justice from them for us. Never. We have to do this. We have to do this so future generations will have clean earth to till that is free of the weeds of corruption and the stain of liberal decadence that has produced nothing our culture values. Indeed, whether it is an assault on our religion (rosaries suspended in bottles of piss) or assaults upon our values (calling us racists), we owe it to our children and their children to put an end to this so they may live under a sky where tyranny and arbitrary government does not ruin their lives as this government and the liberal movement has ruined ours.
It is now passed fairness and the weak should be pardoned by the strong, but do not judge us for doing what has to be done. We all know this is how it will likely end anyway with us having to make a choice of us or them. What would you have us do? Would you have us wait until your family is turned out of its home or your husband is sent to a re-education camp or you are imprisoned in a holding pen awaiting some "humane" method of liberal euthanasia because you are unwilling to continue being their indentured servant who they do not even flatter with chains? For God's sake, at least the Negro slaves of the 19th centuries were given chains as a sign of respect by their Democratic masters – we don't even get those! Will you not join us? Will you not recognize history for what it is? Will you not say that 100 million murdered souls cry out for an end to this?
Tell me citizen – what is enough? Where do you draw the line? When will you say that it has reached a point where you no longer believe your life is worth continuing, but the lives of future generations are worth the sacrifices of your blood and honor? When?
Knowing those dumb as nails Democrats they will expand Freddy AN Fannie
I had been really a Kudlow fan. For a while.
He is starting to un-sell me.
I sure hope he hasn't fallen off the wagon.
You're gonna see what type of power we have come November. We righties are the side with the intelligence and money to do it. See you in November………….time to take our country back!
Understand what BF and all liberals are REALLY saying after-the-fact: "the transfer of wealth, the 'spreading it around a little,' income redistribution, all are great ideas, but we squeezed the golden goose too hard. " In other words, redistribution from the productive to the unproductive (or less productive), from the wealthy to the less-wealthy (I cannot really call them "poor" as we in America have a skewed idea of "poor," see, e.g., Haiti) is ALWAYS the answer — pick your title, be it "social justice," "reparations for past injustice," etc.– so long as we don't kill the goose.
What BF is saying is, "here we weren't wrong, we just squeezed too tight."
What BF and his ilk don't get, is that social justice has a price — and the richest nation in the world (lol — $110 trillion in unfunded liabilities) is broke. We cannot afford liberalism. In theory, it's great . . . everyone has a free house, health care, savings for retirement (called Soc. Sec.), etc., but one word has shaken this nation to its foundation and has awoken the vast majority — "Greece." The images were too real, too vivid and to familiar. We see it with Obamacare, we see it with Fannie and Freddie, we see it with Social Security, we see it with Medicare and Medicaid. But, the liberals don't see it — like BF here — until they can no longer deny it. And guess what? That's too late.
Don't let the DEMocRATS fool you…………
Everyone says that DEMocRATS are distancing themselves from 0bama, Fannie and Freddie, the Stimulus, Cash for Clunkers, 0BAMACARE (I COULD GO ON AND ON)……….
It's all an act………..
as soon as the DEMocRATS get reelected………
DEMocRATS will be back in "LOCK STEP" with 0bama………
for CAP AND TAX……………
Just like DEMocRATS were LOCK STEPPED for the STIMULUS and 0BAMACARE.
This is the run-up to full govt control over as much of THIS market sector as possible. Here we go on another bad ride courtesy of Barney and the congress…
By the way Barney, you can run from your record but you can't hide from it. And if you get re-elected in November, we will know which state in the union has the dumbest population. Of course, we already suspect that considering the quality of the rest of your delegation.
As much as I like Larry Kudlow he refuses to see who the real Obama is. He tries to reason why his economic policies are so contrary to the "Will of the people". He refuses to see Obama as executing his plan exactly as he said he was 5 days before he took office when he said quote " We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming America".
Barney Frank can't be trusted to say Happy Birthday and mean it.
I don't want anymore Leftist lying to me, spending my money like I'm a magician with a magic wallet. I don't want to "Fundamentally transform America" I want my America back to its constitutional roots, protecting my rights not taking them away. Protecting our borders not looking the other way for votes.
I want my country back. Starting Nov. 2010.
WHO GETS STUCK WITH THE 1.4 TRILLION PLUS BILL Barney???? My God someone needs to go to jail !!!!
If he were Japanese, he would have done the honorable thing and committed hara-kiri !!
This mea culpa is a crock of shit. HUD did the exact same thing in Detroit in the 70's. They all knew the result of that. A city destroyed.
He's unfit for office.
ouuuuuuu, pass the brain bleach………..photons, I did NOT need that image in my brain…….
spew…….. sputter…………… spit!
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Here's the basics……our 'prosperity'( standard of living ) has been financed by debt, since production ( manufacturing ) has been moved offshore. Our standard of living can NEVER recover.
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