Rep. Barney Frank: Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Does It Again

Rep. Barney Frank: Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Does It Again: "That same year, when the Bush administration insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac raise the percentage of below-median income homeowner mortgages they bought, I was correctly quoted in a Bloomberg article on June 17th as saying that this would 'do some harm,' and the writer noted that 'Frank's comments echo concerns...that the new goals will undermine profits and put new homeowners into dwellings they can't afford.'
It was a consistent series of statements like that on my part, and efforts to act on them --although these were often unsuccessful when I was in the minority -- that led frequent Republican economic appointee and Wall Street Journal contributor Larry Lindsey to write in April of this year that 'Barney Frank is the only politician I know who has argued that we needed tighter rules that intentionally produce fewer homeowners and more renters. Politicians usually believe that homeownership rates should - must - go ever higher.'
In fact, I was one of the supporters in 1994 of the legislation that directed the Federal Reserve to restrict inappropriate mortgages at the subprime level, and I also lamented Alan Greenspan's refusal to implement this - a refusal which he in a forthright manner acknowledged recently was a grave error. When he refused to do this, I and others in Congress, mostly but not only Democrats, pushed for legislation to restrict subprime mortgages."

This is the money quote. The Ayn Rands of America have attempted to put the blame on this entire crises on the left and particularly the poor. Just listen to Rush or Fox "News" on any given day. But the facts do not support their arguments. But when has reality driven anything for current "conservative" Republicans.