There probably isn’t a man alive who doesn’t reach his hand into his pocket on a daily basis. It is a normal occurrence, paying for a purchase, or just standing around waiting for something, hand in the pocket without giving it a thought.
Well the news out of Washington Friday July 11 was more than a bit disturbing. It seems that we are all familiar with George Bush and his moneyed Republican friends sticking their hands into our pockets, through high gasoline and food prices, as well as through taxes on everything including the kitchen sink.
This time they are planning on not only sticking their hand in your pocket but plan on keeping it there to help out their buddies. The word on the street is that senior Bush administration officials are considering a plan to have the government take over the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies.
Both Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Corporation) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), have participated more than their fair share in the mortgage foreclosure crisis. It has been reported elsewhere that in the last few months the two have lost upwards of $11 BILLION. And spokesmen for the financial industry say that a conservatorship allowing the government to take over both institutions would end up costing the taxpayers another SIX TRILLION DOLLARS, and that my friends is a conservative estimate of this small portion of corporate welfare that the average American pays no attention to. We can not afford corporate welfare.
What this means is that our country’s debt will triple from $3 to $9 Trillion in a single move. This makes the corruption in the Iraq War by Bush cronies look like chicken feed.
Additional rumors say that under the proposed plan anyone with a mortgage under $750,000 would see it restructured and larger ones just written off as shareholders in the two quasi-agency-corporations would be ripped off for even more dollars, their stock being worthless. Now don’t get me wrong I ain’t crying over a few rich institutions losing a few bucks. I leave that to John McCain and his questionable associates (especially in Arizona), but when the average American has his pockets emptied to protect the capital position of a corporation or group of corporations that is financial terrorism taken to the extreme.
Guess what most of the commercial banks use to dump their high risk mortgages, while keeping the safest ones for themselves? Awe you guessed it, right? Why once again must we the taxpayers be subjected to the hands of Bush and Big Banks reaching into our pockets? We shouldn’t! Where is a good Pocket Lock (not the encryption software either) when you need one?
Where in the hell is the The Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities and Government Sponsored Enterprises? Why haven’t they been regulating these so called private corporations?
Why have these two corporations and the Federal Home Loan Banks together been allowed to accumulate debt that is greater than the national debt? Think lobbyists and easy access might have something to do with it? I do.
The Administration and both these (Fannie and Freddie) keep telling us how they have greatly increased the home mortgage opportunity for Americans especially for those in the low income brackets. Hog Wash! Back in the 1960’s when all us "Hippies" were running around care-free, 63% of Americans owned their own homes (with mortgages of course), and just recently it was reported that the percentage now almost a half century later is 68.5%. How much of that increase is due to higher salaries or competition between financial institutions?
Now I don’t know about you, but this isn’t growth in my humble opinion, this smacks of the use of quasi-agencies being established to line someone’s pocket! You can bet, that it isn’t your or my pocket that is getting lined, ours are the ones getting picked.
More Articles at: WE! the weekly online magazine