GOP offers more bills to limit Fannie, Freddie

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican lawmakers on Friday proposed legislation to keep in place the dividends mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pay the government for taxpayer support, while capping the amount of aid they can get.

The proposals are part of Republican efforts to privatize the residential mortgage market by shutting down the two government-controlled firms that dominate it. Fannie and Freddie, together with the Federal Housing Administration, finance almost 90 percent of U.S. home loans.

"Fannie and Freddie's days are numbered," said Scott Garrett, who heads the subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives that oversees the two firms.

Garrett is guiding a strategy of pushing narrow bits of legislation through Congress in an effort to gain as much bipartisan support as he can.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mach, which were taken over by the government at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 as losses on mortgage ballooned, have received about $164 billion in taxpayer aid.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110513/pl_nm/us_financial_housing_congress

[xoom]

1. leave fannie and freddie alone!

[Yupster]

2. Do you work for one of them?

How do you leave something alone that loses $ 8 of the taxpayer's money each quarter?