Treasury Sec. Geithner’s confession upends Pelosi’s Bush-bashing presser

This video features a young Barack Obama and others confirming banks were forced to make risky loans that came to be called “Ninja Loans”—no income, no job, no assets required. (Video: YouTube)

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) held a presser on Thursday, blaming President George W. Bush for the troubled U.S. economy. Pelosi told media Republicans want to return the country to policies that caused the “trouble in the first place,” and President Barack Obama wants to take the economy “forward.”

Pelosi actually could have blamed President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but what’s interesting in the present is that her Bush-bashing presser is upended by  a confession from Obama’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when he testified before Congress.

For your amusement, some facts that fly in the face of Pelosi’s purely political statements:

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Fannie Mae, another New Deal deal that soured $104 billion tax dollars

The Live Leak video from 2008 shows Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) angrily denying she took political contributions from Fannie Mae. As Open Secrets shows, Waters did receive such contributions. It would have been easy for Maher to have his staff fact check Waters’ denial—the data turns up in a Web search in seconds. Waters is a Democrat, so Maher gave her a pass.Fannie Mae, for progressive politicians, was the cash cow that kept on giving. From its creation under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 to an explosion in funds, the “Trillion Dollar Commitment”** announced by President Lyndon B. Johnson, Fannie Mae has enjoyed fierce protection from Democrats like Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)

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Rep. Boren should know—the devil’s in the spending

This video from Citizens Against Government Waste reveals mindless federal spending.

Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) appeared on Fox and Friends Monday, questioning Republican plans to cut spending. This should come as no surprise—Boren is a third generation politico.

When asked about GOP plans for cuts, he said, “The devil’s in the details.” Boren and his fellow liberal Democrats proved incapable of addressing rapidly increasing budget deficits. Instead they spent more—they set world records for spending despite President Barack Obama’s campaign pledge to go line by line and cut wasteful spending.

Republicans should face facts. And so should anyone else who really cares about our country.

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GOP to hold hearings on GSE reforms—Fannie and Freddie included

Republicans plan to hold hearings in February in hopes of reforming GSEs—government sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. GSEs are the socialist-progressive model of these times; they’re popular at all levels of government. Bureaucrats and progressive (prog for short) politicians often allude to “public-private partnerships.” That term can easily be interchanged with “crony deals.”

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GOP must fix Fannie, Freddie ignored by Dems

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now guarantee all but a small percentage of home mortgages in the U.S.—Reuters said ‘more than 80 percent’ and Citizens Against Government Waste said ‘more than 90 percent.’

These two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are (pardon the rhetoric) ticking time bombs for the US taxpayer. However, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act touted by Democrats as landmark reform does nothing whatsoever to halt the flow of taxpayer money into the GSEs. As a matter of fact, The New York Times disclosed (according to Money News at Newsmax) taxpayers have funded $160 million in legal fees.

Money News said, “The bulk of the money — $132 million — went to defend Fannie Mae in securities suits and government probes into accounting irregularities allegedly occurring before the subprime meltdown sparked the housing crisis.”

Yet the significance of these GSEs in the housing meltdown is downplayed. No big media outlet will remind the American people some progressive Democrats in Congress blocked action on Fannie or Freddie every time reform was attempted.

The GSE train wreck has been ignored by big media and many in Congress.

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Will Basel III lead to another financial meltdown and future taxpayer bailouts?

Will Potter, a second year economics student at the University of South Carolina, has written an account of Basel III for the university newspaper The Gamecock. Bankers recently met in Basel, Switzerland. The weekend meeting updated agreements on bank reserve requirements—how much a bank must have on hand in case customers show up en masse demanding their money. That sounds like a good idea considering the fiasco we call the financial meltdown.

Did those bankers learn anything? Apparently not, other than the fact they can do what they want because they have a limitless government-backed cushion.

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On blaming Bush, do Dems forget or just lie?

Updated on Monday, July 19, 2010 at 7:19PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

If you listen to a speech by President Barack Obama, at some point he will remind you he “inherited” this economy and he will imply that America’s skyrocketing debt is all the fault of President George W. Bush.  Are Democrats lying or merely confused?

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