# Youtube vid: Repubs. tried to fix Fanni/Freddie in 2004.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 5, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515 "2008-10-05T02:35:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Clu-Me-In](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clu-Me-In](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clu-Me-In)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515/41 "2008-10-06T02:51:59Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Sorry, but this forum is chock full of attacks on the Bush administration and Republicans for all kinds of things, and here we have a problem that has the Democrat’s fingerprints all over it. Yes, the Republicans share some blame, but the majority of it goes to the Democrats. You don’t get to call it ‘bipartisan’ - especially since every other thing that goes wrong in government seems to get dumped in the lap of Republicans even when many Democrats supported it. > > Face it - Fannie and Freddie were strongly supported by Democrats. Barney Frank in the House and Chris Dodd in the Senate have a long history of opposing reforms and of stating that there was no problem wtih Fannie and Freddie and that they were both sound. Democrats in the Senate Banking committee unanimously opposed the last reform bill. The Bush administration had been sounding the alarm about the need for reform since 2002. It was primarily the Democrats who resisted. These are simply the facts. The various votes and rhetoric are available for all to see. Well Sam, since you’re hell-bent on blaming the Democrats, let me point to Bill Black, “a professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and an authority on the Savings and Loan debacle of the 1980s.” [QUOTE=Professor Bill Black] Most of the mistakes for which we are paying now, were actually made by four entities that under conservative economic theory should have exercised effective market discipline – the appraisers, the originators of the mortgages, the rating agencies, and the investment banking firms that packaged the subprime mortgage-backed securities. Instead of disciplining the markets, these private actors served as the four horsemen of the financial apocalypse, aiding the accounting fraud and inflating the housing bubble. It is they, who turned a crisis into a catastrophe. [/QUOTE] Read more here…**[The GOP Blames the Victim.](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282690823092989.html)** Capitalism sure is fragile if subprime borrowers can ruin it. ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515/42 "2008-10-06T02:53:32Z")
This article > **[Pressured to Take More Risk, Fannie Reached Tipping Point (Published 2008)](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05fannie.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin)** > > A decision, made under pressure from Congress and investors, to steer Fannie Mae into dangerous corners of the mortgage market proved to be disastrous. seems to say pressure came from all over for f&f to guarantee risky mortgages came from all over…not just congress. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515/43 "2008-10-06T05:25:55Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > As for lack of reform of Freddie and Fannie precipitating the crisis: Well, I’ve tried not to be political in threads on the current economic crisis, but IMO it’s the single largest contributing factor. Isn’t the largest contributing factor the credit default swaps that were made on top of all the mortgage-backed securities? Aren’t the credit default swaps the fundamental reason that the sub-prime crisis has been turned into a catastrophe? Without this multi-trillion dollar “shadow market”, 5-6% of mortgages defaulting or in danger of defaulting would not have brought down so many Wall Street giants, and potentially the entire economy. That’s my understanding based on everything I’ve heard so far, and is also mentioned in the[link Clu-Me-In](http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4502673n) gives above. If this is the case, then saying that Freddie and Fannie are the single largest contributing factor to the crisis is laying the blame in the wrong place. I see this as an allergic reaction. Sub-prime mortgages are the ‘peanuts’, and the financial system with its credit default swaps is the ‘body’ that went into a near-deadly anaphylactic shock in response to a non-lethal external factor. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515/44 "2008-10-06T05:51:32Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > In the House, Barney Frank’s Finance committee opposed it, and in the Senate, the House Banking Committee couldn’t get it through. It was controlled by Republicans, but they still needed 60% of the vote to get it out of the committee, … I guess I’m mildly bewildered on two relatively minor points here: how was it Barney Frank’s committee when the Republicans were in the majority, and why did it take 60% of the committee vote to get it out of the committee instead of a simple Republican majority? > [@tomndebb](#): > > I am a Mod. Well. All along I thought you were the [hall monitor](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2744558). ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515/45 "2008-10-06T08:27:14Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I guess I’m mildly bewildered on two relatively minor points here: how was it Barney Frank’s committee when the Republicans were in the majority, and why did it take 60% of the committee vote to get it out of the committee instead of a simple Republican majority? > Well. All along I thought you were the [hall monitor](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2744558). Sorry, I meant “The committee Frank was a member of”. He’s the head of it now. As for the 60 votes, I already explained that. The Republicans didn’t have a big enough majority to prevent a filibuster, and the straight party-line vote against from the Democrats in committee was a signal that they would vote as a bloc in opposition and perhaps even filibuster. That’s where the 60% comes from - the number required to stop a filibuster. As house leader, you’re not supposed to put a bill of yours on the floor unless you believe it will win. Republians just couldn’t get the support needed from enough Democrats to take the bill to the floor for a vote. It did pass out of committee, however. Just as severely damaged goods. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515/46 "2008-10-06T08:53:28Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > However, considering that [the value of U.S. subprime mortgages was estimated at $1.3 trillion as of March 2007](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis), this $60 billion is a rather small percentage of the total market. The amount of Fannie Mae’s exposure in late 2007 to what it defines as “sub-prime” mortgages is not necessarily the same thing as the total amount of subprime mortgages bought by both Fannie and Freddie over the last few years. In other words, you are comparing apples and oranges I linked to that document primarily to show you were incorrect to the extent you claim that Fannie and Freddie did not take part in the subprime mortgage market. That document would not appear competent to show the total amount of subprime mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie in recent years for the following reasons: 1. It does NOT include loans purchased or guaranteed by Freddie Mac. 2. Its definition of “sub-prime” is not clear and is in any even different from the definition used by the source for the article you link. 3. It purports to show “exposure,” which is not necessarily the same thing as total loans purchased in recent years. 4. It was prepared by an entity with an interest in minimizing its appearance of exposure to sub-prime mortgages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-vid-repubs-tried-to-fix-fanni-freddie-in-2004/466515.md?page=2)