The Libertarian Party’s Presidential candidate, Bob Barr, has responded to the latest government bailouts, of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which figure to cost U.S. taxpayers billions. Here is his press release:
For Immediate Release
Sep 05, 2008
Barr Blasts Latest Government Bailout
Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $100 Billion or More
“The federal government is preparing to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee. “Congress set up the taxpayers for big losses when it established these quasi-government agencies to subsidize the housing industry, and then earlier this year voted to approve direct federal support for them. Policymakers should learn from the latest financial disaster and say never again,” Barr argues.
Barr says the bailout alone could cost $100 billion or more, and blames Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s for its role in creating the overall subprime lending crisis that prompted Congress to approve a $300 billion bailout of the housing industry.
“First, government subsidizes an industry,” says Barr. “Then, after the industry crashes, government bails it out! The one factor that never changes is: the taxpayers lose,.
“The Fannie/Freddie bailout would be bad enough,” says Barr, noting it comes on top of the Federal Reserve bailing out the brokerage house Bear Stearns. “The automakers are lining up with their hands out for $40 billion in assistance. The federal deficit this year will run $400 billion, and next year’s red ink is likely to hit a half trillion dollars. That will inflate a national debt that already runs $9.5 trillion,” he adds.
“It is time to say no more. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to be privatized and sold off. And Congress must stop treating the federal government like a national soup kitchen for businesses in trouble,” says Barr. “Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has cautioned against bailouts such as the Bush Administration is now championing for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Barr says both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain supported the housing bailout, and neither has specified any hard decisions that they would make to control federal spending.
“Unfortunately, despite their rhetoric of change, they represent the Washington status quo,” says Barr. “Only Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party would change the way the federal government operates and put the taxpayers before the special interests that have never met a government program they didn’t like.”
Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.
The Libertarian Party is America’s third largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.
I know that we disagrees with Bob Barr at our peril here but I’m afraid that on this one I do.
The reason is because the fault for the Subprime Lending Crisis probably doesnt lie even partially with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac but rather with the Republican Party who has in the last eight years severely damaged the regulatory scheme through rewriting more permissive regulations and underfunding almost all regulatory and inspection agencies throughout the Federal Government. Actions which require no legislative approval only direction by political appointees. (Smaller government or just more loopholes….)
The monies that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac administer are in trouble probably due to the downturn in the housing market and the recession in housing values caused by the Subprime Lending Crisis, not because it lent money to unqualified buyers..
Anonyms –
Again, a personal anecdote… sorry. 😛
I actually worked for a sub-prime lender for about 10 days last summer. The problem with this particular lending scheme was that the higher-ups in each office closed all of the sales.
The only way to advance in a company was to a) be OK with that and b) prove that you believed in the concept. They had the ‘brokers’ (many were hired off the street) convinced that they were saving people money with these loans and so there was plausible deniability on the part of the rank and file.
The top official in every single office of every single sub-prime mortgage lender should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Each knew exactly what they were doing!
SMS
Agreed
still, it’s hard to object to the government’s mass bailouts as similar debt-producing methods were put into action to bring the U.S. out of the Depression… our economy has been supported and driven by debt ever since