Kucinich to Investigate Fannie/Freddie Bailout

[seafan]

Glad to see this isn't falling down the rabbit hole, in spite of MSM's yawning halitosis.



From Jane Hamsher at FDL:

If the White House thought they could slip the bailout of Fannie and Freddie through by announcing it in a Christmas eve news dump, think again.

Dennis Kucinich just released this statement:

As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I’m announcing that the Subcommittee will launch an investigation into the Treasury Department’s recent decision to lift the current $400-billion cap on combined federal assistance to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, opening the way for additional, unlimited funds through the end of 2012. This investigation will include the role played by Fannie Mae chief executive Michael J. Williams and Freddie Mac chief executive Charles E. Haldeman in the decision, if any, and will seek to ensure that the additional assistance is used for homeowners and not Wall Street.

Many questions remain unanswered regarding this move by the Treasury. Why suddenly remove the cap? Indications are that Freddie and Fannie, even as millions of Americans lose their homes, have used just $111 billion of the $400 billion previously available to them. Is lifting the cap on assistance a back-door TARP?

Additionally, I want to determine whether Fannie and Freddie have a cohesive plan to buy up the under-performing mortgages that remain on the books of the big banks, at appropriate prices, and undertake a massive reworking of the terms of the mortgages so as to stem the foreclosure crisis that continues to plague our country.This new authority must be used responsibly and for the benefit of American families. This cannot be used simply to purchase toxic assets at inflated prices, thus transferring the losses to the U. S. taxpayers and acting as a back-door TARP.

On Christmas Eve they also announced $4-$6 million compensation packages for their top executives. But in they’ll start foreclosing on homeowners again in January.

Fannie and Freddie have been corrupt cesspools for years, a place where Presidents of both parties parked friends like Dennis DeConcini and Rahm Emanuel for lucrative spots on the Board of Directors as political payoff. As government sponsored entities (GSEs) selling shares to the public, they operate like hedge funds that socialize losses and privatize profits. From the LA Times last year:

This week…news broke that until August, the lobbying firm owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage giants implicated in the current crisis (now taken over by the government and under investigation by the FBI). Apparently, Freddie Mac’s plan was to gain influence with McCain’s campaign in hopes that he would help shield it from pesky government regulations.

It appears they kept looking. The Democrats have been too intimidated by leadership to start looking into the utter corruption at these entities, but Kucinich just doesn’t care.

We’ve started a fundraising page at ActBlue to thank Dennis for taking this bold step, and doing it quickly. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to leadership, the White House and the banks like that. GSEs are going to be much in the news in the upcoming year and he is announcing that he will be setting the agenda, not standing on the sidelines for a coverup.

We’ d like to get 100 donors to say “thank you” to Dennis, even if it’s only $5, so he knows it matters to the people who are watching.

Donate to Dennis Kucinich

Christmas Eve data dump

[ProSense]

1. Figures Hamsher would jump on this. Krugman

And the administration very much wants to keep this kind of intervention going. You can argue that some other policy — inflation targeting by the Fed, expanded fiscal stimulus, whatever — would be better. But none of these things seem politically possible. Keeping Fannie and Freddie fully engaged in the mortgage-support business is one of the few tools available to prop up a still very weak economy. And so they’re doing it.

link

This is on par with investigating Obama's czars.

[HuckleB]

31. +1

[jgraz]

2. Go Dennis!

:patriot:

[berni_mccoy]

3. Thank goodness.

When Kucinich picks up a cause, you know it's going nowhere.

Not surprised he's picked up Hamsher's banner and is siding with the likes of Norquist. He's always been conservative at heart... anti-abortion before he was pro-choice, changed just in time for the 2008 election and then asking Ron Paul to be his running mate. Yep, Hamsher and Kucinich belong together.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Thank goodness you're so transparent..

"He's (Kucinich) always been conservative at heart."

:rofl:

[berni_mccoy]

13. You deny he was anti-choice and wanted Ron Paul as a running mate?

[AllentownJake]

20. Attack what Dennis has to say

Don't attack Dennis himself or his motivations. You are engaging in some serious logical fallacies here.

[berni_mccoy]

25. When he works with the likes of Norquist, nothing he can say is worth listening to.

[AllentownJake]

26. He is engaging in his duties as a congressman

Unless you have proof of wrong doing from Dennis, I respectfully ask you to attack the assertions being made not the parties involved.

[Donnachaidh]

6. wow -- you REALLY overdosed on the koolaid if you think Dennis is a CONSERVATIVE!

Hope your people do an intervention soon :rofl:

[earth mom]

8. Wow you've really gone off the deep end your blind loyalty haven't you?

Well you can stick it where the sun don't shine because Kuninich actually cares about this country, it's people AND The Constitution.

Which is more than can be said about your do nothing hero. :eyes:

[berni_mccoy]

19. Actually it's nuts like Kucinich and Hamsher who've gone off the deep end working with Norquist

And it's a long line of trends for Kucinich... anti-choice, Ron Paul and now Norquist.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

34. But blind loyalty to Kucinich is okay?

:rofl:

I like both Kucinich and Obama (!), but I'm not blindly loyal to either one of them, or anybody else, for that matter.

[flvegan]

32. Delusional. n/t

[Junkdrawer]

4. Done. n/t

[AllentownJake]

7. From what I'm reading Fannie and Freddie have become Money Laundering operations nt.

[ProSense]

9. Link? n/t

[AllentownJake]

11. You don't like the guy I'm reading

:rofl:

[ProSense]

15. Made it up, huh? n/t

[AllentownJake]

17. Nope we've had this fight before

and you will attack the authors not the content of what they are saying, even though the last politician one of the authors endorsed was Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for President.

So I'm not going to play the game with you.

[dave29]

27. link it anyways.

please :)

[AllentownJake]

28. I'll P-M you

I have no desire to reopen a debate with these authors with Pro and the attacks on me personally that will sure to follow.

[earth mom]

10. Go Dennis!!!

:yourock:

[AngryAmish]

12. Bloodsuckers, all of them.

[seafan]

14. More of Kucinich's statement

LINK


December 29, 2009

.....

As a result of a curiously-timed Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department, the mortgage giants will have access to unlimited funds without having to come back to Congress. Since the federal government is the majority owner of both companies, their operations will remain under Administration control.

This relationship between Treasury and Fannie and Freddie bears inspection, particularly in the wake of reports that the mortgage giants' chief executives will now receive $900,000 each in annual compensation, bonuses of up to $6 million each, and an additional $42 million in special compensation will be spread among a dozen other executives.

The calculated end-run by the administration around Congressional approval for this latest bailout is most distressing, because of the acutely uncomfortable implications.


God knows what people will do when they start hearing about it.

[Echo In Light]

16. Thanks for posting! K&R for DK!

[Don Caballero]

18. He is so annoying

and a contrarian. He needs to work with the Party not against it.

[Junkdrawer]

21. He annoys you? Good...

he's on the right track...

[Individualist]

23. +1

[AllentownJake]

22. The party is a tool for a goal

not the goal itself.

[G_j]

24. a good sign

I suppose

[flvegan]

33. Lockstep, dammit Dennis!

Obey!

[inna]

29. KR+10

[Junkdrawer]

30. Kick

:kick:

[LiberalAndProud]

35. This is just unreal.

I believe what Dennis is acting appropriately in his role and is providing Congressional Oversight. I wish we had done a better job of that during the Bush administration. As much as I support Obama, I can't view Dennis' actions as a personal attack on him or his COS.

To set Dennis and Obama up as adversaries and to pretend that we need to be on one side or the other is just ...

unreal.