Democrats blocked regulatory reforms

This is in response to Mr. Robert Griffith's Fence Post letter dated Sept. 24.

The seed for this mortgage meltdown was planted in 1992 under President Clinton.

However, in September of 2003, President Bush recognized the pending crisis and recommended "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry."

His proposal would have taken authority of Fannie and Freddie away from Congress and give that authority to the Treasury Department and it would "determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios."

In July of that year, a private investigation revealed Freddie and Fannie's bookkeeping wasn't very accurate. Their former executives are now economic advisers to Barack Obama.

So President Bush did try sounding the alarm in 2003 and McCain tried again in 2005. Both times Democrats in Congress fought the proposed regulatory reforms on Freddie and Fannie.

In 2003, Rep. Barney Frank, the highest ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, said, "These two entities - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Looks like he just wanted to maintain control of this Democratic piggy bank.

And now the irony is that Frank and Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd are trying to figure a way out of this mess when they have been instrumental in creating it.

The fact is when President Bush and other Republicans were trying to shed light on the pending mortgage crisis, the Democrats put on sunglasses.

Al Haak

Palatine