Refresh your memory with this:About That Letter: Obama Voted ‘Present’ on Mortgage Reform. :
What did Barack Obama do? He wrote a letter. He didn’t bother to co-sponsor the bill that could have prevented this year’s financial collapse, or to even allow it to come to a vote. Obama talked (allegedly ” we have yet to see this letter) while McCain took action.
Now Obama and the same Democrats who pushed Fannie and Freddie to buy a trillion dollars in bad loans want to blame “deregulation” for the crisis. It wasn’t deregulation, and as Wallison points out, the industry didn’t get deregulated at all. Congress created this crisis by pushing Fannie and Freddie into not just buying subprime paper but into transforming it into securities that infected the entire financial system.
Today, the Wall Street Journal discuesses that infamous letter:
Mr. Obama replied that he “never promoted Fannie Mae” and that “two years ago I said that we’ve got a subprime lending crisis that has to be dealt with.” And that’s not all. “I wrote to Secretary Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything about it,” said the Illinois Senator.
There’s more. Mr. Obama’s March 2007 letter included a stirring call to “assess options” and boldly suggested that the two men “facilitate a serious conversation” about housing. He was even brave enough to suggest that “the relevant private sector entities and regulators” might be able to provide “targeted responses.” Then in paragraph four, the Harvard-trained lawyer dropped his bombshell: a suggestion that various interest groups get together to “consider” best practices in mortgage lending.
Some may find it hard to believe that Mr. Obama had nothing to show for this herculean effort to shake up Washington. They may be shocked as well that such passionate language didn’t move the Fed and Treasury to action. For our part, we note that nowhere in his letter did Mr. Obama suggest that the government should stop subsidizing loans to people who can’t repay them.
I will ask again; Why would a U.S. Senator, with the power to enact legislation, write a letter rather than vote for a cure?
Ed:
In a crisis, some show leadership, and some show up, and some : write letters. Barack Obama hasn’t shown the courage of leadership on any significant, controversial issue in the US Senate ” not even once. Now he wants to run the country after almost literally mailing in his performance in half a term in national office. That’s judgment we cannot trust.
Why? Because he knew the right wingers in the House & Senate would block the legislation or the process would take forever, so instead, he wrote a letter in the hopes that Wall Street and the Federal Reserve would take action on their own. Did Bernanke & Paulson take his advice? Nope!
How many right wingers wrote letters urging Wall Street & the Reserve to take action? *crickets*
As president, Barack is going to take action against the corrupt. I can’t wait.
KayInMaine-
How many right wingers wrote letters? None, they wrote the legislation that would have prevented this. In other words, they did their job. Obama could have voted for the legislation but he chose to go along with his party that created this mess.
He will never go against his own kay, so don’t hold your breath.
Do you honestly believe that the current economic crisis is the fault of the democrats? Did the deregulation championed for decades by Republicans play any role at all?
AKD. Yes, the evidence does seem to point that way.
Well, the thing is, the great majority of articles I’ve read on it — articles written by economists from UChicago, Stanford, NYU, and Harvard, among others — have all said that, while the democrats are certainly not free from guilt, the disastrous policies of the Bush administration are the main culprit.
Is there actually any point in me linking to these articles? Be honest…
Yes provide the links..start with the archives though that have posts detailing the actions of the Democrats de-regulating the industry going back as far as the 80′s..Also link to the many times that Bush call for regulations to be put in place so as to avoid this situation and I believe that was met with a “that’s racist”!
You want links to articles published in the ’80s? That might be a little tricky?
Go ahead and try. I found articles dating back to the 1800′s..Google is your friend..
In the mean time get the articles from UChicago, Stanford, NYU, and Harvard, among others
OK, I’ll at least dig up the more recent stuff. I read some of them in print-form, but I’m sure that I can find them online.