Here's The Latest Piece Of Crap The Repugs Are E-Mailing Blasting The Dems On The Economy.....

[global1]

I received this e-mail today from a Repug friend that can't get over the fact that they lost the last election. I've refrained from responding to him on these and choose to ignore him and not give him any satisfaction that I get disturbed when he sends me these. But - in this case I thought it would be good to put this out on DU to let those of you that haven't gotten one of these e-mails - a chance to see what the Repugs are saying and doing and what they are circulating amongst themselves. So here it is for informational purposes:

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"Dear Friends,

I am sounding an alarm! For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this is not being discussed on the media or why conservatives are not making their case: IT IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!! The following is a condensation of a series from the Investor's Business Daily explaining 'What Caused the Loan Crisis':

1977: Pres. Jimmy Carter signs the Community Reinvestment Act into Law. The law pressured financial institutions to extend home loans to those who would otherwise not qualify. The Premise: Home ownership would improve poor and crime-ridden communities and neighborhoods in terms of crime, investment, jobs, etc.

Results: Statistics bear out that it did not help.

How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing market? Answer: Bill Clinton wanted it that way.

1992: Republican representative Jim Leach (IO) warned of the danger that Fannie and Freddie were changing from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the principals and the stockholding few.

1993: Clinton extensively rewrote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules turning the quasi-private mortgage-funding firms into semi-nationalized monopoies dispensing cash and loans to large Democratic voting blocks and handing favors, jobs and contributions to political allies. This potent mix led inevitably to corruption and now the collapse of Freddie and Fannie.

1994: Despite warnings, Clinton unveiled his National Home-Ownership Strategy which broadened the CRA in ways congress never intended.

1995: Congress, about to change from a Democrat majority to Republican, Clinton orders Robert Rubin's Treasury Dept to rewrite the rules. Robt. Rubin's Treasury reworked rules, forcing banks to satisfy quotas for sub-prime and minority loans to get a satisfactory CRA rating. The rating was key to expansion or mergers for banks. Loans began to be made on the basis of race and little else.

1997 - 1999: Clinton, bypassing Republicans, enlisted Andrew Cuomo, then Secretary of Housing and Urban Developement, allowing Freddie and Fannie to get into the sub-prime market in a BIG way. Led by Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, congress doubled down on the risk by easing capital limits and allowing them to hold just 2.5% of capital to back their investments vs. 10% for banks. Since they could borrow at lower rates than banks their enterprises boomed.

With incentives in place, banks poured billions in loans into poor communities, often 'no doc', 'no income', requiring no money down and no verification of income. Worse still was the cronyism: Fannie and Freddie became home to out-of work-politicians, mostly Clinton Democrats. 384 politicians got big campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie. Over $200 million had been spent on lobbying and political activities. During the 1990's Fannie and Freddie enjoyed a subsidy of as musch as $182 Billion, most of it going to principals and shareholders, not poor borrowers as claimed.

Did it work? Minorities made up 49% of the 12.5 million new homeowners but many of those loans have gone bad and the minority homeownership rates are shrinking fast.

1999: New Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, became alarmed at Fannie and Freddie's excesses. Congress held hearings the ensuing year but nothing was done because Fannie and Freddie had donated millions to key congressmen and radical groups, ensuring no meaningful changes would take place. 'We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage our credit and interest rate risks,' Fannie CEO Franklin Raines, a former Clinton official and current Barack Obama advisor, bragged to investors in 1999.

2000: Secretary Summers sent Undersecretary Gary Gensler to Congress seeking an end to the 'special status'. Democrats raised a ruckus as did Fannie and Freddie, headed by politically connected CEO's who knew how to reward and punish. 'We think that the statements evidence a contempt for the nation's housing and mortgage markets' Freddie spokesperson Sharon McHale said. It was the last chance during the Clinton era for reform.

2001: Republicans try repeatedly to bring fiscal sanity to Fannie and Freddie but Democrats blocked any attempt at reform; especially Rep. Barney Frank and Sen.Chris Dodd who now run key banking committees and were huge beneficiaries of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants.

2003: Bush proposes what the NY Times called 'the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago'. Even after discovering a scheme by Fannie and Freddie to overstate earnings by $10.6 billion to boost their bonuses, the Democrats killed reform.

2005: Then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan warns Congress: 'We are placing the total financial system at substantial risk'. Sen. McCain, with two others, sponsored a Fannie/Freddie reform bill and said, 'If congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole'. Sen. Harry Reid accused the GOP ;of trying to 'cripple the ability of Fannie and Freddie to carry out their mission of expanding homeownership' The bill went nowhere.

2007: By now Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee over HALF of the $12 trillion US mortgage market. The mortgage giants, whose executive suites were top-heavy with former Democratic officials, had been working with Wall St. to repackage the bad loans and sell them to investors. As the housing market fell in '07, subprime mortgage portfolios suffered major losses. The crisis was on, though it was 15 years in the making.

2008: McCain has repeatedly called for reforming the behemoths, Bush urged reform 17 times. Still the media have repeated Democrats' talking points about this being a 'Republican' disaster. A few Republicans are complicit but Fannie and Freddie were created by Democrats, regulated by Democrats, largely run by Democrats and protected by Democrats. That's why taxpayers are now being asked for $700 billion!!

If you doubt any of this, just click the links below and listen to your lawmakers own words. They are condeming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68D9XrqyrWo&feature=related#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgqfM5C8lY#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9juJr8CSY4&feature=related#

Postscript: ACORN is one of the principle beneficiaries of Fannie/ Freddie's slush funds. They are currently under indictment or investigation in many states. Barack Obama served as their legal counsel, defending their activities for several years.

Please share this with everyone you know. Send it. Print it. Talk about it. America needs to know!!! "
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So you could see the Repugs are squarely trying to put the blame on the Dems for the current situation. The Dems including Carter, Clinton, Reid, Frank, Cuomo, Dodd, Rubin, etc .... are clearly at blame and the Repugs including Bush & McCain did all they could to warn and prevent this all from happening. And they are tying Barack Obama into this as well.

I'm just furious that this crap is going on and the Repugs are doing everything in their power to 'obstruct' and 'obfuscate' this new administration. We need to fight back and get the message set straight.

[YOY]

1. Why do they always call each other "friends"

They don't give a shit about each other at all. They literally don't. They don't give a shit about anyone but themselves. "I got mine fuck you." is their mantra followed up by "Greed is good." as a credo.

So why the "friends" crap?

[antigop]

2. Business Week piece: CRA had nothing to do with the subprime crisis

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinv.html

Fresh off the false and politicized attack on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, today we’re hearing the know-nothings blame the subprime crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act — a 30-year-old law that was actually weakened by the Bush administration just as the worst lending wave began. This is even more ridiculous than blaming Freddie and Fannie.

The Community Reinvestment Act, passed in 1977, requires banks to lend in the low-income neighborhoods where they take deposits. Just the idea that a lending crisis created from 2004 to 2007 was caused by a 1977 law is silly. But it’s even more ridiculous when you consider that most subprime loans were made by firms that aren’t subject to the CRA. University of Michigan law professor Michael Barr testified back in February before the House Committee on Financial Services that 50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject comprehensive federal supervision and another 30% were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations. As former Fed Governor Ned Gramlich said in an August, 2007, speech shortly before he passed away: “In the subprime market where we badly need supervision, a majority of loans are made with very little supervision. It is like a city with a murder law, but no cops on the beat.”

Not surprisingly given the higher degree of supervision, loans made under the CRA program were made in a more responsible way than other subprime loans. CRA loans carried lower rates than other subprime loans and were less likely to end up securitized into the mortgage-backed securities that have caused so many losses, according to a recent study by the law firm Traiger & Hinckley (PDF file here).

[BuyingThyme]

3. Acorn is the new prison tatoo.

[EFerrari]

4. What a pantload. I guess they have to go back to CARTER

to distract from the reality that Bush drove our economy into a ditch. :)

[bluestateguy]

5. They lost. We won. They are kindly asked to STFU.

Now is the time for all good Americans to stand with the president and his policies.

Anyone who disagrees is free to leave the country.

[QC]

6. Ask your friend what role he thinks credit default swaps have played

in this mess.

He will clam up and never bother you again, because he will have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

[PA Democrat]

12. My right wing BIL started spouting this crap about the CRA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I brought up credit default swaps and got the dumbest blank look imaginable. My hubby was sitting across the room chuckling. I guess Rush never brings up such inconvenient truths.

[GentryDixon]

7. My first impression.

This is too complex for most of their audience to get through.

:rofl:

[musette_sf]

8. actually it provides the idiot lemmings

with lotsa lotsa bits to cut and paste and pollute message boards and blogs with. i'm sure i'll be seeing some of these on my community message board in 3... 2... 1...

[GentryDixon]

9. That assumes they know how to cut and paste.

[zulchzulu]

10. It's amazing how the 1980's NEVER HAPPENED in the email

I could swear I lived through the 80s, but maybe not? I could swear there was some asshat named Reagan who deregulated everything... who am I to question a Repig's motives.

:crazy:

[Number23]

11. Don't you know that every single calamity throughout the history of the world

can be laid squarely at the feet of black people?? Especially POOR black people??

I can't believe you didn't catch that memo! It's been floating around for damn near 400 years...