Bush tried

Lew Rockwell points out that Ron Paul predicted the Fannie/Freddie crash.

Wow, 2003. What a prophet! Ron Paul is usually right on financial issues and that's why I'm glad he's in congress.

But predictably, Mr. Rockwell doesn't mention that the Bush Administration foresaw what was coming an tried to stop it also. In 2003.

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

...but was thwarted by Dems such as Barney and Melvin who threw out the timeless and well-beloved canard, "Bush is just twying to huwt to poow people!!"

"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis," said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

"I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing," Mr. Watt said.