Michele Bachmann blames poor people and minorities for financial crisis

[Minnesota Raindog]

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/29771494.html

The recklessness of government is a primary culprit here. For years, Congress has been pushing banks to make risky, subprime loans. Using the authority of the Community Reinvestment Act, the big push for subprime mortgages began in earnest during the Clinton years. Banks that didn't play ball were subject to serious fines and lawsuits, and regulatory obstacles were placed in their way. While expanding access to the American Dream is a worthy goal, by blindly pursuing that goal and allowing the end to justify any means, we put millions of Americans at financial risk.


Of course, like everything else that comes out of Bachmann's mouth, this is total bullshit:

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=did_liberals_cause_the_subprime_crisis

[Winterblues]

1. All those poor people and blacks must have outsmarted all those

super smart economic experts that run all those mortgage houses. How did all those super smart Republican economic experts get hoodwinked so easily? :shrug:

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Mortgage Firms Aren't Run By Economists

They're run by finance people and accountants. Just sayin'.
The Professor

[ProfessorGAC]

2. No They Have Not, Michelle

That's a myth. The gov't didn't encourage subprime loans. They encouraged banks to find a way to serve the lower income folks. That didn't mean by enticing them with low rates and getting them to borrow more than they could pay back.

The real method encouraged was to lower the standard by which a loan was considered substantive enough to be a mortgage. Banks didn't really want to provide mortgages on $35,000 properties that needed work.

Instead, they raised the income to debt ratio and encouraged overborrowing with exotic ARM's. Nobody in the gov't ever pushed them to do that.

Because they didn't want to be bother with "piddly" $40k mortgages, and builders didn't want to build new $90k homes, they came up with an alternative plan to get people who make $60k to borrow $275k for a house they couldn't afford when the ARM repriced.

The banks did this all on their own. I was on the board of a community bank when all this happened, and our bank did what i said first. We lowered the amount we would consider a valid first mortgage on a home. We got more home loans, and a lot of them were for small, older homes. And you know what? Our delinquency ratio never went up!
The Professor

[Blue_Tires]

12. that is the freshly-baked spin coming from our Cato friends, as well

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=387762&mesg_id=387762

trying hard to make it stick

[Solly Mack]

4. On the TV, she said we needed a "free market solution" to the current crisis

[Ganja Ninja]

5. That's the meme the GOP is pushing.

It's all Carter, Clinton and the poor's fault.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Calvinistic BS reminiscent of Marvin Olasky, *'s inspiration for "compassionate conservative".

[riverdeep]

7. And Keith Ellison is having none of it.

http://www.minnpost.com/douggrow/2008/09/24/3634/ellison_angered_and_shocked_that_some_are_blaming_the_poor_and_blacks_for_wall_streets_troubles

""Poor blacks caused this,'' said Ellison, Minnesota's the 5th District congressman, scornfully. "That's what we're supposed to believe. Little ACORN caused this. The mighty captains of Wall Street got taken down by little ACORN and poor black people. That's what you're hearing on the right. The gall and audacity of this is beyond imagination."

[Minnesota Raindog]

8. Minnesota (and Congress) needs a few more Keith Ellisons ...

... and a few less Michele Bachmanns.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

11. I am very proud of MY Congressman, Rep. Ellison!

:patriot:

[Flubadubya]

9. Ayn Rand worshiping a$$hole...

She probably has a shrine to the witch in her basement, LOL!! :puke:

[Minnesota Raindog]

10. Meanwhile, Bachmann's supporters advocate shooting Barney Frank

from a comment on Bachmann's blog:

http://michelebachmann.townhall.com/blog/g/b6b3cd06-cdbc-44cd-9af5-35cc7069f40d&comments=true#commentAnchor


Keith writes: Thursday, September, 25, 2008 9:47 PM
Yo John boy
Start your list with Slick Willy. This mess started way 'long time ago. Do some reading. Don't listen to the sound bites...

btw Barney Frank should be shot in sight. And this bill smells really bad.

[ljm2002]

13. But not a word about...

...the criminals who laundered these financial "instruments" into fraudulent packages to be sold to unsuspecting international buyers. Nope, those guys and gals are just as blameless as can be.

Who the fuck do they think they're kidding.

[ncteechur]

14. I wish someone would kick her in the nuts.