Pelosi: Delusions, Not Facts, on Fan/Fred

Seems that every time I post about Queen Nancy, I have to use "delusions, not facts" as part of the title.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked Tuesday whether Democrats bear some of the responsibility regarding the current crisis on Wall Street, had a one-word answer: “No.”

Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped President Bush’s “mismanagement” of the economy and a lack of regulation that led to the current situation.

Uh-huh.

In the year 2003, we find this:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

...The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

(Which manipulation allowed Clinton-ite Jamie Gorelick to snag a very fat bonus...)

Guess what?

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Lying sack of s&^%.

Frank Raines, another Dim appointee, is also a double-dealing liar and fraudster:

But behind the scenes, Fannie Mae's Chicago office mobilized to gut Snow's plan.

"Hi everyone -- We are reaching out for your help!!" the office wrote to mortgage bankers in an Oct. 6 e-mail. The note urged recipients to tell congressional leaders to keep their hands off Fannie Mae. Within days, the initiative died

OK. The Dimmies killed off the 2003 proposal.

Move to 2005. After Raines was fired for accounting irregularities (but picked up a multi-$million severance check on the way out the door,):

Senator Richard K. Shelby, the Alabama Republican who is chairman of the banking committee, said on Wednesday that Mr. Raines's departure would almost certainly give Congress renewed impetus to crack down on Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages.

The dismissal "does not obviate the need for enhanced regulation," he said in a statement, adding that "if anything, this change in management reinforces the need for comprehensive regulatory reform."

Fine. But in the House of Nancy, Barney, & Co.:

Even as they have weathered financial scandals and management shakeouts, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with their political allies in Congress and the mortgage and construction industries, continue to exert considerable political influence on the legislation.

They soundly defeated one attempt to eliminate Fannie's and Freddie's ability to borrow money from the federal Treasury and a second amendment that would have given their new regulator greater authority. They also saved a provision that would give them the ability to provide financing for larger and more lucrative loans.

By a voice vote, the House also approved an amendment supported by Fannie and Freddie and opposed by the Bush administration that would continue letting the White House select a number of board members

By that time, it was clear that 1) Fan/Fred were doing very little to 'increase home-ownership' among the poor; and worse, 2) Fan/Fred were shoving money into the market so hard that it was creating the "housing bubble" in prices.

Oh, THAT'S helpful.

Big Hat Tip: Just One Minute