O'Reilly Spreads Conspiracy Theory About Fannie May and Barney Frank
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.Right-wing extremists like Bill O'Liar continue to push the total falsehood that Democrats were at fault for not tightening regulation on Fannie May and Freddie Mac. The House of Representatives is not like the Senate. In the House legislation is passed by simple majority. Republicans controlled the House from 2000 to 2006. They even held hearings on Fannie May in 2003. Democrats and Republicans alike did vote to tighten up some accounting procedures, but that is all. Barney Frank and Democrats could not have passed any regulatory rules because they did not have enough votes until 2006. In 2006 one of the first things they did was pass some financial reforms. The Myth of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Barney Frank, the Housing Bubble and the Recession
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.
Frank also spoke in support of "legislation that would have enhanced the regulatory structure for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" during an October 6, 2004, hearing on capital markets, insurance, and government-sponsored enterprises. During the hearing, Frank said:
First, I want to address a little history here. The committee here was well on the way to adopting legislation that would have enhanced the regulatory structure for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the Senate, in fact, the committee actually voted out a bill. There was some disagreement between the parties over I think a relatively minor section over receivership. I think that could have been worked out.
I believe we were well on the way, the chairman and I and the staffs, to putting together a bill that would have enhanced the regulator and could have passed. What stopped progress on a new bill was the Bush administration's determination to go beyond safety and soundness and into provisions that would have restricted the housing function.
[...]
What derailed the legislation was an insistence by the Bush administration on going beyond safety and soundness and giving the regulators, for example, particular power to say, well, they are going beyond their charter in housing; they should not do these new products. There were specific issues here that transcended safety and soundness or went under it, but the administration was seeking powers that were not related to safety and soundness. If they were to have dropped that, we would have a law already signed and in place, because on the question of safety and soundness regulation, there has not been a significant dispute.
Why Carly Fiorina Should NOT be Elected to the United States Senate to represent California
