What governmental body was responsible for giving Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae so much power without oversight?
And when did it occur? Under whose presidency?
Tagged with: presidency
Filed under: Freddie Mac Questions
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If you’re looking at the most recent place to park some blame, it was about three years ago that a Republican majority passed through a bill tightening control over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with the vote going exactly along party lines. It takes a 60% vote to get such a bill through the Senate, though, and the bill never reached the floor. You could blame the Democrats despite their minority status at the time, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. The Republicans certainly didn’t raise a huge stink at the time. The idea of making housing "affordable" to poorer people was just too politically enticing. The vision of our political leadership never exceeds a two- to four-year window, and seldom takes into account unpleasant side-effects. If bills were pills, no legislation would ever pass FDA approval on the grounds of safety.
Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 during the FDR administration.
Freddie Mac was founded in 1970 during the Nixon administration to give competition to Fannie Mae.
Both were charted by Congress.
In 1938 both houses of Congress were overwhelmingly Democratic.
In 1970 the Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress.