Democrats Admit Companies Were Right To Claim Obamacare Would Make Costs Higher Rather Than Lower

Now, before you start thinking this is some sort of right-wing Tea Party claim, look at the source:

Inquiry Says Health Care Charges Were Proper
Robert Pear
New York Times
April 26, 2010

Yes, you read that right. The New York Times. Hardly a bastion of right-wing thought.

Here is what Mr. Pear wrote:

When major companies declared that a provision of the new health care law would hurt earnings, Democrats were skeptical. But after investigating, House Democrats have concluded that the companies were right to tell investors and the government about the expected adverse effects of the law on their financial results. ... Within days after President Obama signed the law on March 23, companies filed reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the tax change would have a material adverse effect on their earnings. The White House suggested that companies were exaggerating the effects of the tax change. The commerce secretary, Gary F. Locke, said the companies were being “premature and irresponsible” in taking such write-downs.

"Irresonsible?" This from a hard-core leftist administration that is squandering our grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's futures as we speak?

Well, it turns out that the companies were right and the Dems were wrong:

In a memorandum summarizing its investigation, the Democratic staff of the committee said, “The companies acted properly and in accordance with accounting standards in submitting filings to the S.E.C. in March and April.” Moreover, it said, “these one-time charges were required by applicable accounting rules.” The committee staff said this view was confirmed by independent experts at the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Academy of Actuaries.

Didn't the Dems promise that Obamacare would make health care less expensive? This law is only going to make it more expensive and less accessible. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak (both Democrats) were going to hold hearing on the claims these companies made until the two learned that the claims were well-founded. Those hearings have now been cancelled.

Democrat Henry Waxman Looks To Censor And/Or Regulate Speech On The Internet

This is no joke, folks! What you are reading right now may come under the heavy-handed regulations of a Federal government controlled by leftists. Here is what Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) had to say:

"This isn't just about Limbaugh or a local radio host most of us haven't heard about," says Democrat committee member. "The FCC and state and local governments also have oversight over the Internet lines and the cable and telecom companies that operate them. We want to get alternative views on radio and TV, but we also want to makes sure those alternative views are read, heard and seen online, which is becoming increasingly video and audio driven. Thanks to the stimulus package, we've established that broadband networks -- the Internet -- are critical, national infrastructure. We think that gives us an opening to look at what runs over that critical infrastructure."

In other words, if those in power in the Federal Government don't like what 84rules or any other blogger or on-line information source is writing, then they want to have the power to come in and delete it, or alter it to something more to their liking.

But it isn't just the Dems in Washington who are pushing for this power of censorship. Others have indicated that they want in on the game as well:

Also involved in "brainstorming" on "Fairness Doctrine and online monitoring has been the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, which has published studies pressing for the Fairness Doctrine, as well as the radical MoveOn.org, which has been speaking to committee staff about policies that would allow them to use their five to six million person database to mobilize complaints against radio, TV or online entities they perceive to be limiting free speech or limiting opinion.

That's right. If Waxman has his way, the 5 to 6 million people from MoveOn.org will be able to shut down what the other 294 to 295 million of us will have available to read and hear.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

In All Fairness
The Prowler
American Spectator
February 16, 2009

Congress Finally Acknowledges Some Of The True Culprits Of The Credit Crisis

Former Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives were scheduled to be questioned about their roles in the sub-prime credit crash. Names like Leland Brendsel, Daniel Mudd and Franklin Raines as well as Richard Syron are being mentioned.

These are the people who should have been hauled before Congress back in September-October when the House and Senate were discussing the failed bailout of Wall Street. Maybe now we can get some real answers to the problem and Congress will see that the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act needs to be repealed if we really want to clean up the entire mess.

From CNN:

“The companies made irresponsible investments, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., committee chairman. “Their own risk managers warned time after time of the dangers of investing in subprime market, but those risks were ignored.” The companies have drawn criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for taking on too much risk, exacerbating the credit crisis when the housing market declined. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during his recent failed presidential bid, said Fannie and Freddie were the “catalyst - the match that started this forest fire.” The publicly traded but federally backed companies together control or guarantee about $5 trillion in mortgage loans. They purchase large amounts of home loans, bundle them together and divide them into securities that can be sold to investors.

I'm gald to see that people like Franklin Raines (who made over $90 million in personal income off of these high risk, sub-prime loans) are finally being brought before the cameras so that the American people can see who profited by this whole thing and why.

You can access the original blog entry on-line here:

Fannie, Freddie Ignored Warning Signs
David Goldman
CNNMoney.com
December 9, 2008

Democrats Will Not Talk About Freddie Mac Or Fannie Mae In Their Sham Hearings

HAT TIP TO HOT AIR!

Man! Did we predict this or what? In an earlier post, I speculated that Pelosi and Company would not be bringing people like Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Franklin Raines before Congress to answer questions about their roles in the Freddie and Fannie meltdown. I was right. She won't.

In fact, the Dems will only being before Congress the Wall Street CEOs, despite the fact that these CEOs did everything they could to obey the law under the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act and it was trying to stay within that law that led to the current sistuation we are in. Will the Dems acknowledge this? No! They are trying to deflect the blame elsewhere.

From Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air:

Democrats have begun a search for the culprit in the financial collapse in a manner somewhat akin to the OJ Simpson search for Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman’s murderer. The Hill reports that Henry Waxman’s Oversight Committee hearing grilled Lehman Brothers executives over CEO pay and “deregulation”, but never mentioned the names Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Republicans found that more than a little strange.

Here is what The Hill is reporting:

Democrats aimed their harshest attacks at deregulation and CEO pay, using former Lehman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld as an example during a recess hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) also released internal documents showing Lehman’s compensation committee recommended $20 million in “special payments” to three departing executives on Sept. 11, four days before the firm filed for bankruptcy. Republicans, for their part, launched a campaign to pin the financial meltdown on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and attacked Waxman for not holding a hearing to dig into the now-nationalized mortgage giants. “Any hearing on oversight that does not begin with Fannie and Freddie and [former Fannie Mae CEO] Franklin Raines will be a sham,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). “This is like investigating a train robbery and only talking to the dining car stewards.”

And check out this video of Chris Shays ripping into Congress for its own part in the Freddie/Fannie mess:

Video From C-SPAN Here

you can access the orginal Hot Air entry on-line here:

Democrats Refuse To Talk About Fannie, Freddie In Oversight Hearing
Ed Morissey
Hot Air
October 7, 2008

Pelosi Declares Hearings On Housing Crisis: Barney Frank To Co-Chair

Immediately after the Wall Street Bailout bill passed the House and went to the Oval Office for Presidential signature, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that there would be hearings on the subject.

According to CNN:

She said Congress will shine a new "light of scrutiny and accountability" on the nation's financial system to try to prevent a replay of the problems that plunged the nation into a financial crisis. Reps. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, and Henry Waxman, D-California, plan to hold hearings to increase scrutiny of the financial system, Pelosi added. "We want to take our country in a new direction for the middle class," Pelosi said. Frank told reporters Friday that starting in January, Congress will "have a major role." "We have to rewrite housing in America. ... It would be highly irresponsible if we were to stop here," he said. "Now we have to perform more serious reform."

Yet, she mentions nothing about the accountability of people like Sen. Chris Dodd, or Franklin Raines or Jamie Gorelick, the latter two having made millions off of Fannie while the organization itself was sliding into government conservatorship.

And what about Barney Frank Co-Chairing these hearings? Will anyone get him to answer questions about the way he blocked reform of Freddie and Fannie over the past several years? Will Pelosi demand accountability and transparency from him? No. She is nothing more than a partisan hack who just managed to cram through the biggest socialist package in American history.

Something else that should be looked into: Barney Frank's relationship with a former Fannie executive named Herb Moses.

From Fox News:

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie. Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical. "It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane? "If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard." A top GOP House aide agreed. "C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws." Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Of course they didn't immediately respond. They need time to think up a way of spinning out of it.

You can access these articles on-line here:

Pelosi: After Bill Passage, Hearings Set To Begin
CNN.com
October 3, 2008

Lawmaker Accused Of Fannie Mae Conflict Of Interest
Bill Sammon
Fox News
October 3, 2008