"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants" - Albert Camus

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Where Is the Outrage on Fannie and Freddie Bonuses?

Remember the days when the President lectured the banks because of the "obscene" bonuses their executives were receiving after the so-called bail-outs by taxpayer funds?



Leaving aside the fact that it was really the holders of U.S. Treasuries - both foreign and domestic - who funded the nearly $700 billion TARP and not the tax revenues, and that practically all private banks paid the TARP funds they received back with interest, this mightier-than-thou attitude/outrage of the Marxist-in-Chief seems to be quite selective.  Other than GM (who "paid off" its TARP funds with more borrowed TARP funds) and AIG, Fannie and Freddie are the only two financial institutions that still owe $170 billion to the Treasury.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two GSEs that were responsible for buying the lion share of the mortgages throughout the 2000s, announced recently that they will payout nearly $13 million in bonuses to their top executives.  As I mentioned above, unlike the banks, Fannie and Freddie who are recipients of $170 billion in bail-out funds have not paid back 85% of what they borrowed, nor do they have any hopes of doing so in the future!  In fact, the U.S. government is likely to continue pouring billions to keep these two government sponsored enterprises from imploding.  The eventual cost to the treasury is expected to be around a trillion dollars.

So, I ask, where is the outrage Mr. President?  Could it be because these agencies have been scandalously run by Democrats for the past decade as their own piggy banks as well as serving as one of their favorite vehicles of social engineering?  Could it be because your party has blocked every effort to reign in the run away GSEs everytime it was tried?  Could it be because you and your party were, and are, the top recipients of their campaign contributions?  Could it be that you need the financial institutions on your side, supporting you with their contributions now that your election prospects do not look so good anymore?

White House spokesman Jay Carney said yesterday that the President was not - nor should he be - involved with bonuses paid by these entities.  You could have fooled me, Mr. Carney!  The canary was singing a whole different tune not-so-long ago.

1 comment:

THE ANTI LIBERAL ZONE said...

As long as it is Dems covering for Dems, you KNOW how Crime Inc operates. Hell, Franklin Raines and the other Jamie Gorelick should have been INDICTED!