yes and republicans have been such loud voices in reforming anything and regulating everyting, especially corporations that bankroll them.

plugg your bullcrap talking points all you like. just because you say it doesn't make it any more true.

Right....so can you please post a link to where Republicans tried to pass legislation to reform Fannie & Freddie???

Fairliberal,

I assume you are just unaware of the process, but there are many HR 2803's depending on what Congress you are talking about.  Many bills have the same number, they start from scratch every two years.

So, Snoopy is correct, HR 2803 was introduced by Rep. Royce in 2003 regarding Government Entities among other things and yes, you are correct that there was an altogether different HR 2803 introduced in 2007.

As for the overall point, even if the Republican's majority wasn't filibuster proof, did they even try to pass any legislation?  Did they try to garner votes from the Dems?  Where is the Bill they tried to pass? 

Any answers for those questions?

Maybe you are saying the Republicans never introduced any legislation, because they didn't have a filibuster proof majority?  Is that it?  Because I think they did actually get some legislation passed in such a difficult situation.

Check it again. as usual. you don't understand the concept of bringing bills forward from previous terms. That bill's been around awhile. It's quite hard to dispute anything you say when it is clear you don't even know what you are posting to begin with.

Please read above!

In December 2007, the United States entered the second-longest post-World War II recession,[8] which included a housing market correction, a subprime mortgage crisis, soaring oil prices and a declining dollar value.[83] In February, 63,000 jobs were lost, a 5-year record.[84][85] To aid with the situation, Bush signed a $170 billion economic stimulus package which aimed to improve the economic situation by sending tax rebate checks to many Americans and providing tax breaks for struggling businesses. The Bush administration pushed for significantly increased regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003,[86] and after two years, the regulations passed the House but died in the Senate. Many Republican senators, as well as influential members of the Bush Administration, feared that the agency created by these regulations would merely be mimicking the private sector’s risky practices.[87][88]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?_r=2&sq=bush%20reckoning&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1237229040-7ir5gNOm7y27ZufDkpY9Tg

"THE RECKONING

White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire" Dec 20 2008

"He pushed hard to expand homeownership, especially among minorities, an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent — and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors. But his housing policies and hands-off approach to regulation encouraged lax lending standards."

"Darrin West could not believe it. The president of the United States was standing in his living room."

"It was June 17, 2002, a day Mr. West recalls as 'the highlight of my life.' Mr. Bush, in Atlanta to unveil a plan to increase the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million, was touring Park Place South, a development of starter homes in a neighborhood once marked by blight and crime."

"Mr. West had patrolled there as a police officer, and now he was the proud owner of a $130,000 town house, bought with an adjustable-rate mortgage and a $20,000 government loan as his down payment — just the sort of creative public-private financing Mr. Bush was promoting."

"'Part of economic security,' Mr. Bush declared that day, 'is owning your own home.'"

"Advocating homeownership is hardly novel; the Clinton administration did it, too. For Mr. Bush, it was part of his vision of an 'ownership society,' in which Americans would rely less on the government for health care, retirement and shelter. It was also good politics, a way to court black and Hispanic voters."

"But for much of Mr. Bush’s tenure, government statistics show, incomes for most families remained relatively stagnant while housing prices skyrocketed. That put homeownership increasingly out of reach for first-time buyers like Mr. West."

"So Mr. Bush had to, in his words, 'use the mighty muscle of the federal government' to meet his goal. He proposed affordable housing tax incentives. He insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meet ambitious new goals for low-income lending."

"Concerned that down payments were a barrier, Mr. Bush persuaded Congress to spend up to $200 million a year to help first-time buyers with down payments and closing costs."

"As for Mr. Bush’s banking regulators, they once brandished a chain saw over a 9,000-page pile of regulations as they promised to ease burdens on the industry. When states tried to use consumer protection laws to crack down on predatory lending, the comptroller of the currency blocked the effort, asserting that states had no authority over national banks."

"The administration won that fight at the Supreme Court. But Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, said, 'They took 50 sheriffs off the beat at a time when lending was becoming the Wild West.'”

"The president did push rules aimed at forcing lenders to more clearly explain loan terms. But the White House shelved them in 2004, after industry-friendly members of Congress threatened to block confirmation of his new housing secretary."

"In the 2004 election cycle, mortgage bankers and brokers poured nearly $847,000 into Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign, more than triple their contributions in 2000, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The administration did not finalize the new rules until last month."

"Brian Montgomery, the Federal Housing Administration commissioner, understood the significance. His agency insures home loans, traditionally for the same low-income minority borrowers Mr. Bush wanted to help. When he arrived in June 2005, he was shocked to find those customers had been lured away by the 'fool’s gold' of subprime loans. The Ameriquest settlement, he said, reinforced his concern that the industry was exploiting borrowers."

"In December 2005, Mr. Montgomery drafted a memo and brought it to the White House. 'I don’t think this is what the president had in mind here,' he recalled telling Ryan Streeter, then the president’s chief housing policy analyst."

"It was an opportunity to address the risky subprime lending practices head on. But that was never seriously discussed. More senior aides, like Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s chief political strategist, were wary of overly regulating an industry that, Mr. Rove said in an interview, provided 'a valuable service to people who could not otherwise get credit.' While he had some concerns about the industry’s practices, he said, 'it did provide an opportunity for people, a lot of whom are still in their houses today.'”

"The White House pursued a narrower plan offered by Mr. Montgomery that would have allowed the F.H.A. to loosen standards so it could lure back subprime borrowers by insuring similar, but safer, loans. It passed the House but died in the Senate, where Republican senators feared that the agency would merely be mimicking the private sector’s risky practices — a view Mr. Rove said he shared."

"Today, administration officials say it is fair to ask whether Mr. Bush’s ownership push backfired. Mr. Paulson said the administration, like others before it, 'over-incented housing.'Mr. Hennessey put it this way: 'I would not say too much emphasis on expanding homeownership. I would say not enough early focus on easy lending practices.'”

"But the back story is more complicated. To begin with, on the day Mr. Falcon issued his report, the White House tried to fire him."

"At the time, Fannie and Freddie were allies in the president’s quest to drive up homeownership rates; Franklin D. Raines, then Fannie’s chief executive, has fond memories of visiting Mr. Bush in the Oval Office and flying aboard Air Force One to a housing event. 'They loved us,' he said."

"So when Mr. Falcon refused to deep-six his report, Mr. Raines took his complaints to top Treasury officials and the White House. 'I’m going to do what I need to do to defend my company and my position,' Mr. Raines told Mr. Falcon."

"Days later, as Mr. Falcon was in New York preparing to deliver a speech about his findings, his cellphone rang. It was the White House personnel office, he said, telling him he was about to be unemployed."

"His warnings were buried in the next day’s news coverage, trumped by the White House announcement that Mr. Bush would replace Mr. Falcon, a Democrat appointed by Bill Clinton, with Mark C. Brickell, a leader in the derivatives industry that Mr. Falcon’s report had flagged."

"Michael G. Oxley, an Ohio Republican and then-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, had produced what Mr. Snow viewed as 'a pretty darned good bill,' a watered-down version of what the president sought. But at the urging of Mr. Card and the White House economics team, the president decided to hold out for a tougher bill in the Senate."

"Mr. Card said he feared that Mr. Snow was 'more interested in the deal than the result.' When the bill passed the House, the president issued a statement opposing it, effectively killing any chance of compromise. Mr. Oxley was furious."

“'The problem with those guys at the White House, they had all the answers and they didn’t think they had to listen to anyone, including the Treasury secretary,' Mr. Oxley said in a recent interview. 'They were driving the ideological train. He was in the caboose, and they were in the engine room.'"

"Typically, as home prices increase, rental costs rise proportionally. But Mr. Thomas sent charts to top White House and Treasury officials showing that the monthly cost of owning far outpaced the cost to rent. To Mr. Thomas, it was a sign that housing prices were wildly inflated and bound to plunge, a condition that could set off a foreclosure crisis as conventional and subprime borrowers with little equity found they owed more than their houses were worth."

"It was not the Bush team’s first warning. The previous year, Mr. Lindsey, the former chief economics adviser, returned to the White House to tell his old colleagues that housing prices were headed for a crash. But housing values are hard to evaluate, and Mr. Lindsey had a reputation as a market pessimist, said Mr. Hubbard, adding, 'I thought, ‘He’s always a bear.’ ”

"In retrospect, Mr. Hubbard said, Mr. Lindsey was 'absolutely right,' and Mr. Thomas’s charts 'should have been a signal.'

"That fall (2007), Representative Rahm Emanuel, a leading Democrat, former investment banker and now the incoming chief of staff to President-elect Barack Obama, warned the White House it was not doing enough. He said he told Joshua B. Bolten, Mr. Bush’s chief of staff, and Mr. Paulson in a series of phone calls that the credit crisiswould get 'deep and serious' and that the only answer was big, internationally coordinated government intervention."

"'You got to strangle this thing and suffocate it,' he recalled saying."