Champions Of The Poor

Democrats hold themselves up to be the champions of the poor. It always struck me as odd that a bunch of rich guys and gals, most of whom have never held a real job outside of Congress, can claim to be "one of us", the working people. They do, though, and quite successfully based on the electoral polls.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were tools used by Congress ostensibly to help poor folks own a home. While home ownership is a big part of "The American Dream", it was never intended to be a guarantee. It was historically the culmination of hard work and personal sacrifice. It may be again once more, but not in the foreseeable future.

Helping people who are not financially capable of buying a home buy one anyway is not only a bad idea, it is cruel, as we are now seeing people who had a small sip of the Dream having it wrenched from their grasp. It's almost like stealing a sandwich and handing it to a starving homeless person with the police in pursuit, who then rip it from his hands just as he's about to take a bite. The sandwich-snatcher then blames the police for taking food from the hungry.

The Bush Administration is now the target, bearing the blame for the woes of Freddie and Fannie, when he tried to fix the problem five years ago.


From the above link, Barney Frank had this to say about Bush's proposed plan:

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Note the title for Mr. Frank; ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. Maybe it's time for some new leadership in that area. Oh yes, and another financial expert, in the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel, is in trouble because he had trouble navigating the tax codes! He then had the unmitigated audacity to blame Republicans for his misdeeds. He paid the back taxes, but "penalties and interest were not included in those payments". Yeah, he's just like you and me, alright.

This brings us to Barack Obama, who is leading the charge against the Administration in an attempt to lay blame, and ultimately win the Presidency. But while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were about to crumble, Obama saw fit to accept over $126,000 from them. That's in just three years as a senator, folks. By contrast, John McCain accepted $21,550, over twenty years.

The bottom line here is this; the democrats were opposed to Bush's oversight plan for these two institutions because they claimed it would make it harder for poor people to get homes. So they staved off the inevitable for a little while and in the meantime some poor folks bought houses, which they are now losing again.

While it may appear to be compassionate, it is certainly not helpful at all to give a homeless person a new refrigerator box.

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