Question – if all this is Clinton’s fault, then why did it all start under a Republican Congress AND a Republican Administration?
I’ll grant that perhaps it is Clinton’s legacy that allowed for Fannie and Freddie to potentially buy some toxic paper – but it is the GOP that was responsible for oversight during the actual bubble blowup – and the GOP doesn’t seem to BELIEVE in oversight (invisible hand and all that).
And I believe that Bush (and the rest of the GOP) were all trumpeting the huge gains in minority home ownership under their reign (indeed, they made it a centerpiece of Bush’s 04 reelection campaign). Attempting to shift the blame to Clinton on this is nothing but a red herring to distract everyone who reads it from the FACT that this entire financial meltdown occurred with a Republican President, and the entire bubble inflation which led to this meltdown occurred with a Republican Congress.
And while Freddie and Fannie certainly are the giants in the industry, during the heydey of the bubble, they weren’t nearly as prevalent in the really toxic paper (due to at least some minimal qualifications and documentation that they insisted on before lending, as well as their lower maximum loans) as the major subprime players, as well as Wall Street and their willingness to package anything for a buck.
