Put the blame where it belongs

I question the piece by Republican Del. Bob Marshall, (“Congress shouldn’t reward gamblers,” Sept. 29) who lays the financial crisis at the feet of President Bush and Wall Street lobbyists. The excerpts below, from a May 31, 1999, Los Angeles Times story put the blame where it belongs:

“It’s one of the hidden success stories of the Clinton era. In the great housing boom of the 1990s, minority homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded, increasing from three to five times as fast as the number of whites.”

“... In 1992, [a majority Democratic] Congress mandated that Fannie and Freddie devote 42% [sic] of their portfolios to loans for low- and moderate-income borrowers. ... [F]annie Mae is resisting any hike. It argues that a higher target would only produce more loan defaults by pressuring banks to accept unsafe borrowers.”

According to World Net Daily, “Federal Election Commission records back to 1989 reveal [Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack] Obama, in his three complete years in the Senate, is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions.” This differs from Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who on May 25, 2006, warned of the coming crisis and in 2005 pressed for regulatory reform of Fannie and Freddie, pointing out that senior management at the agencies had inflated profits, according to http://www.govtrack.us.

Former Fannie Chairman Franklin Raines was among the executives involved in that debacle. He made $90 million in just five years, according to The Associated Press. McCain has charged in an advertisement that Raines advised Obama on housing policy.

Congress, many members of which participated in creating the original problem, are now faced with creating some sort of program to inject capital into the financial markets, which their meddlesome policies have so badly damaged.

Charles Salembier

Waynesboro

Editor’s note: The Obama campaign denies McCain’s claim that Franklin Raines has advised the Democratic senator.