From Pine View Farm

McCain Spins like a Washing Machine 3

In the third major segment of This American Life this week, Alex Blumberg deconstructs the Republican lie that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac caused the collapse of the mortgage market, and therefore the collapse of the housing market, and therefore of the collapse of the whole wide world.

Of course, believing that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, rather than criminally negligent and even some fraudulent practices by banks and mortgage companies, mortgage brokers and real estate salespersons, is convenient for Republicans, because it absolves their failed stewardship of governance from responsibility for what happened.

And, as I have demonstated, conservatives never take responsibity for their failed policies.

Remember who was in charge from 2001-2007 and who blocked anything from happening in Congress in 2007-2008.

From the website (emphasis added):

Alex Blumberg returns (in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast) with the latest in the financial crisis. This and other stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problems—solutions that sometimes cause problems of their own.

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3 comments

  1. Opie

    October 12, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    When you say “fraudulent practices,” are you including all sweetheart deals that these companies had with US Senators in a position to oversee legislation effecting those companies, regardless of party? Or are Democrats exempted from scrutiny?

     
  2. Frank

    October 12, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    No, I’m referring to things like this:

    “I was part of the problem,” Montgomery admits.

    “We really messed up on these mortgages,” she says. “We knew people weren’t qualified, but we wrote the loans for them anyway. . . . Now everybody’s adjusting and they can’t afford them.”

    And you can stop changing the subject.

    The Congress didn’t make the bad loans.

    The Republican Congress–not the Congress, the Republican Congress–and the Republican administration turned a blind eye to misconduct.

    Democrats didn’t castrate the SEC and the FTC.

    Republicans did.

    Give it up.

    All the snark in the world can’t win this one.

     
  3. Opie

    October 13, 2008 at 4:43 pm

    You’re actually saying that Chris Dodd getting a sweetheart loan from Countrywide should not even be considered in figuring out what happened here? Are you serious?

    I don’t see how you can ever fix a problem when you decide that half the people involved should be exempt from any examination. I certainly would never say Republicans are not complicit – why be so protective of Democrats who clearly were either bought off or at the very least asleep at the wheel?