Moe Lane at RedState.com points to a letter from 2004 in which a bunch of House Democrats complained that “an exclusive focus on safety and soundness [by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] is likely to come, in practice, at the expense of affordable housing.” Signatories to that letter included North Carolina Democrats Bob Etheridge (2nd District), David Price (4th District), Brad Miller (13th District), and Mel Watt (12th District.
In other words, four years before the bubble burst, these North Carolina Democrats were complaining to President Bush that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being too diligent in making sure that people who got mortgages could actually pay for them. To them, putting housing in the hands of deadbeats was more important than staying solvent. That’s sort of the way they approach the finances of the nation, too, if their votes since Obama took office are any indication.
Since the housing credit blowup occurred, Democrats who pushed for lax lending standards for every Tom, Dick and Harry have been running from their responsibility in the matter. Even Barney Frank, who, along with Chris Dodd, are the chief architects of this disaster, is calling for the dissolution of Fannie and Freddie. But he, and his North Carolina followers, shouldn’t escape their personal responsibility for this disaster that wrecked our economy in the name of political correctness and wealth redistribution.
