President Obama on Wednesday nominated Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency and venture capitalist Tom Wheeler to head the Federal Communications Commission, a pair of selections that will face contentious confirmation hearings in the Senate.
If confirmed, Watt would be responsible for oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Republicans have continually bickered with the administration about how to handle the massive companies bailed out by taxpayers...
Let's look at Mel Watt, who I look upon as crack whore in charge of the whorehouse and expecting to clean it up from further wrong doing.
“Mel understands as well as anybody what caused the housing crisis,” Obama said, adding that if confirmed, Watt would focus on predatory lenders and ensure that low-income Americans had access to affordable homes...
Unbridled access to more than affordable home loans for low income Americans in home purchases is exactly what precipitated the 2007 Great Recession. When liberal progressive politicians like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank injected government in the home loan qualification process, the outcome was rather easy to determine. Lenders went along with the politicians in what has come to be known as crony capitalism. Essentially, government told lenders that they would back all home loans no matter whether borrows met conventional lending standards or not. It turned out that a significant number of these sweetheart loans that were made, eventually and predictably, defaulted.
With that guarantee admonition, lenders were incentivized to overlook virtually all lending standards, since government would pick up the pieces of what would lead to mortgage defaults across the nation.
Apparently President Obama wants more of the same action from Mel Watt. Look the other way on lending standards to increase minority home ownership and then let actual taxpayers, once again, pick up the inevitable costs of loan failures.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said. “This gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house. The debate around his nomination will illuminate for all Americans why Fannie and Freddie failed so miserably.”...
Moving on to Tom Wheeler.
Wheeler, Obama’s pick to lead the FCC, also ignited GOP anger. The 67-year-old was a major fundraiser for both of Obama’s presidential campaigns, another example, critics said, of the growing influence of money in the Obama administration...
Talk about crony capitalism... It doesn't become more obvious a political payback than the nomination of Tom Wheeler.
Read cited article in its entirety at the Washington Examiner
No comments:
Post a Comment