By Sen. Kit Bond
In my home state, Missourians are no strangers to the housing crisis – thousand of Missouri families have been delinquent on their mortgages, struggling to stay in their homes.
This week the housing crisis will once again touch taxpayers in Missouri and across the nation.
On Sunday, our government seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – two financial institutions that together, provide three-fourths of new home mortgages.
As the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds our nation’s housing programs, I have a number of troubling concerns with this latest government bailout of Fannie and Freddie.Read more…
Related:
MOPNS: 8/12/08 Former Bond Staffer’s Firm Slated to Lobby Senator
Investers Business Daily: Freddie, Fannie Were Big Campaign Donors
Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) may not have managed their mortgage investments wisely, but the loan-funding giants used a savvy strategy of campaign contributions, based on an Investor’s Business Daily analysis
Senators on a key appropriations panel received $167,000, with Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., reaping $64,000.
“We raise all the money we are permitted . . . so that we can get our message out and so our candidates can compete with all the funds raised by the opposition,” read a statement by Bond’s office. Read more…
Slade Smith’s Blog: Fannie & Freddie: let the fingerpointing begin!
Fannie Mae tried to steamroll its underpowered regulator all along the way. At one point, Fannie Mae instigated a retailatory HUD investigation against the OFHEO regulators who were looking into their accounting fraud in order to undermine the credibility of the regulator. They had one of their lobbyists draft a letter for Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo) to send to HUD and request the investigation. Bond sent the letter on to HUD under his own name, made public statements directed at getting the lead regulator sacked, and was rewarded for his efforts with tidy campaign contributions from Mr. Raines and other Fannie Mae execs. Read more…
0 responses so far ↓
1 Russ Toalson // Sep 11, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Can we please stop saving institutions that invest unwisely, from the results of their actions? Pressure from Congress forced these quasi-governmental agencies to lend billions to unqualified recipients and as long as real estate values climbed the illusion of stability was maintained. When values dropped and the poor credit risks started to default, the same Congress that help create the mess wants the taxpayer who is responsible and manages their own debt to become their irresponsible brother’s keeper. I call BS on the whole mess. Let Congress give up their salaries to pay off the bad risks, not us.
2 JasonB // Sep 13, 2008 at 7:42 am
How about knocking off rescuing all these “poor” homeowners who made bad decisions to buy homes they couldn’t afford and then bailing out the banks who allowed the stupid decisions to be funded?????
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