Wednesday, December 15, 2010
On Blaming the Republicans Solely For the Financial Meltdown Part 5
This, folks, from former President Clinton (Good Morning America, 2008); "I think that the responsibility that Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."............And these more recent quotes from Barney Frank; a) (2005) "This is not a dot com situation. We will not see a collapse that people see when we talk about a bubble." b) (2006) "Fundamentally, I don't think that there's a crisis." c) (2006) "We had a degree of meltdown in the housing field that very few people foresaw." d) (2008!) "I don't think that Fannie and Freddie are financially insolvent. I don't think that they need a large bailout."............Again, President Clinton seemingly much more willing to accept reality here (this, though, yes, Mr. Frank ultimately did fess up during the 2010 campaign).
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4 comments:
Mr. Frank's statements were clearly wrong. He was NOT, however, one of the players who brought about the 2008 financial crisis. That would be Clinton and the Republicans.
I think this statement by Bill Clinton is an example of Bill Clinton rewriting history. Screw him for throwing his party under the bus when the majority of the responsibility for the financial meltdown is HIS...
Four of five parts focusing solely on blaming Mr. Frank? What about your prior claim that "I DO NOT spread the blame around equally. I said in fact that the Republicans are MORE culpable".
In light of your last 4 posts I call BALONEY on this comment.
Yes, I blame the Republicans more. I admitted to that. But you're attempting here to blame the Republicans completely. Clinton was a Democrat. Franklin Raines was a Democrat. Jamie Gorelick was a Democrat. Frank and Obama each received tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from Fannie and Freddie. All nonpartisan analysts have said that this financial crisis was a bipartisan screw-up. I'll go 80-20. You won't even go 99-1.
In regards to Democrats acting like Republicans and embracing Republican ideologies -- I blame those particular Democrats, not the entire party. Democrats don't stand for deregulation, that's the Republican mantra.
Regulation, like pretty much everything else that the government does, is a double-edges sword. Not enough and/or bad regulation and you end up with abuses, fraud, etc.. Too much and/or bad regulation and you end up stifling enterprise, productivity, etc.. You just gotta find the sweet spot and rarely, if ever, do we succeed.
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