O'Reilly advanced falsehood that about Democrats and Fannie May
On The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that "the Democrats in charge of the finance committees" resisted efforts by the Bush administration to regulate the mortgage industry and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in particular. In fact, it was only after the Democrats did gain control of both "finance committees" in Congress in 2007 that Congress passed legislation strengthening oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
On the February 24 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly once again advanced a false attack on congressional Democrats over the housing crisis, falsely claiming that "the Democrats in charge of the finance committees" resisted efforts by the Bush administration to regulate the mortgage industry and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in particular. In fact, during President Bush's tenure, Democrats did not gain a majority of both houses of Congress -- and therefore control of both "finance committees" -- until 2007. Only then did Congress pass oversight legislation over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
O'Reilly stated to Fox News analyst Karl Rove: "I researched this after I went after Frank -- and I researched it. And here is the absolute -- this is my certainty, and I want you to just reply to it. You're right. The Bush administration tried for three years to try to get more regulation over the mortgage markets and the banking system. They did. But they didn't bring it to the folks. ... Didn't raise the alarm." He later added that this failure of the Bush administration "provided the Barney Franks and [Sen.] Chris Dodds [D-CT] of the world -- the Democrats in charge of the finance committees in Congress -- it provided them cover because they, indeed, didn't want the regulations." Rove responded by saying, in part: "Frank in particular said that we were talking down the mortgage -- the mortgage markets, and we were talking about Fannie and Freddie, and that we were trying to create the bugaboo of a crisis where no crisis existed."
In fact, in early 2007, as the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank sponsored H.R. 1427, a bill to create the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), granting that agency "general supervisory and regulatory authority over" Fannie and Freddie and directing it to reform the companies' business practices and regulate their exposure to credit and market risk. The FHFA was eventually created after Congress incorporated provisions that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said were "similar" to those of H.R. 1427 into the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which Bush signed into law on July 30, 2008.
Furthermore, before taking over the House Financial Services Committee chairmanship, Frank worked with committee chairman Rep. Michael Oxley (R-OH) on the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005, which would have established the FHFA to replace the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) as overseer of the activities of Fannie and Freddie. After voting for the bill in committee, Frank voted against final passage of the bill on the House floor, stating that he was doing so because an amendment added to the bill on the House floor imposed restrictions on the kinds of nonprofit organizations that could receive funding under the bill.
It is anyone's guess as to why the conservative loons at Fox hate facts, reason and America.
