Democrats thwarted bids to avert crisis

This is in reply to Robert E. Griffith's letter ("The smoking gun in the mortgage crisis") of Sept. 24.

He starts the economic crisis on June 18, 2002 and leaves it there in President Bush's lap. If you really want to know who is guilty, read on.

Jimmy Carter started it in '77 with his C.R.A. act encouraging banks to loan to subprime borrowers. Bill Clinton, with the aid of hench woman Janet Reno, strengthened that act and threatened banks with penalties if they did not offer bad loans to poor people Jan. 31, 1995.

Between then and the 2002 Bush speech, few knew that former Clinton personnel such as Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick were plundering Fannie Mae, etc., for hundreds of millions in self-awarded bonuses ala Enron.

In Sept. 2003, Bush proposed an agency to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but he was stonewalled by the Democrats. In 2004, John McCain spoke out for the need for oversight into numerous GSE (Government subsidized/controlled entities) using Fannie Mae as a prime example. In 2005, conservative Republican senators warned of the looming disaster Fannie Mae was about to cause.

In all, the Bush Administration, going back to 2003 tried a dozen times to head off the problem and was thwarted each time by the liberal Democrats.

Griffith challenged us to name a president who has caused more harm to this country than Bush. Try Carter and Clinton. Both butchered the military and our intelligence agencies, making us vulnerable to terror attacks, and both are guilty of the current economic meltdown. Carter, Clinton, and the Democratic Party, that bastion of liars and hypocrites who never admit to their mistakes and who blame others for their failures are at fault.

Now, tell me how Obama will fix this mess.

David A. Caldarola

Hoffman Estates