I was looking into writing about Freddie and Fannies Political contributions today. And lo and behold there is this article in WSJ.
If the government is not fully backing these institutions, why are they allowed to make political donations? By extension, aren't tax payers dollar being used to lobby?
...But an underreported part of this story is that Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow a vote on Republican Jim DeMint's amendment to bar political donations and lobbying by Fannie and its sibling, Freddie Mac.
This is why you can't trust any of the parties. I would like to know why Harry Reid would block this legislation. Can anyone imagine any other government agency doing this?
But with Fan and Fred now explicitly guaranteed by taxpayers, letting them ladle cash all over Washington amounts to using government-guaranteed profits to lobby for continued government protection. Congress sets the rules in favor of Fan and Fred, which then repay the Members with cash from their rigged profit stream. This is the government lobbying itself for more government.
Imagine filling your own back pockets.
Fannie gave $10,000 to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, $10,000 to third-ranking House Democrat Rahm Emanuel, $5,000 to Barney Frank, $10,000 to Republican House whip Roy Blunt, $8,500 to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and $7,500 to Minority Leader John Boehner and . . . you get the picture.
Anyone who accepts donations from Freddie and Fanny should be voted out. Here the Democratic list seems to be bigger. I am not sure if this is because of WSJ or the Fannie just donated more money to Democrats.
Then there are the "charitable" foundations. Freddie Mac's foundation handed out $25 million to political groups, think tanks and other Beltway outfits in 2007 alone, more than any other foundation in the country, according to the Washington Business Journal. Guess which foundation ranked number two? Yep, Fannie Mae's, which gave out $21 million. The foundations grew thanks to gifts of stock during the companies' heyday before their accounting scandals and the housing bust. Last year, as political scrutiny increased, Fannie closed down its foundation and now runs its tax-deductible donations through the company itself.
The more you read, the angrier I get at tax payer dollar being wasted to loosen the accounting standards so they can keep lending at tax payers risk.
What bothers me even more is that there is no outrage in the USA. I am not sure if it's because people are unaware of these issues or people just feel they can't do anything with a two party system where both parties are more of the same.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121728651034091275.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
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