Tonight, Sarah Palin said: “Now, John McCain thankfully has been one representing reform. Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell. People in the Senate with him, his colleagues didn't want to listen to him, and wouldn't go towards that reform that was needed then.” [Vice Presidential Debate, 10/2/08]
The Facts: McCain Has Overstated His Warnings About Fannie And Freddie
MCCAIN’S CLAIM THAT HIS 2006 EFFORTS ON FANNIE AND FREDDIE WERE A WARNING ABOUT THE FINANCIAL MARKETS IS “QUITE A STRETCH”
McCain “Overstates The Role” He Played In Trying To Push Legislation To Reform Fannie And Freddie. “McCain overstates the role he has played [in trying to avert the financial crisis], interviews and Senate records suggest. … Last week in Iowa, he told supporters: ‘When I pushed legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senator Obama was silent. He didn’t lift a finger to avert this crisis.’ … The 2006 legislation that the McCain campaign cites was introduced more than a year earlier, in January 2005, by Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and co-sponsored the same day by two Republican colleagues, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. … Republicans and Democrats in the Senate familiar with the legislation and lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say that speech was the only action by Mr. McCain they recall on the issue. Mr. McCain ‘never took on the role that some other Republicans did’ to try to limit the companies, said a former Freddie Mac executive who later lobbied for the company until its failure. ‘I remember working against a number of amendments, and they were always introduced by Hagel and Sununu,’ said the former executive. ‘John McCain was never anywhere to be found.’” [New York Times, 9/26/08 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26check.html?ref=politics> ]
Politifact: McCain’s Implication That His 2006 Remarks On Fannie And Freddie Were A Warning About The Financial Markets Disaster Is “Quite A Stretch” And “Barely True.” “‘If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole,’ McCain declared in a May 26, 2006, news release. … The implication in McCain's remarks is that his remarks in 2006 were in some way a warning about the financial markets disaster that struck in 2008. That strikes us as quite a stretch. … His attempts to depict those efforts as some sort of early warning that could have lessened the current credit crisis just don't wash. All McCain was talking about then was the potential fallout of accounting troubles in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He didn't say anything about a freewheeling climate among creditors that had major financial institutions becoming badly leveraged on bad loans. We rule his claim Barely True.” [Politifact, accessed: 9/19/08 <http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/721/> ]
Politifact: McCain Is “A Latecomer To The Debate” Over Congressional Efforts To Increase Oversight Of Fannie And Freddie. “First of all, congressional efforts to increase oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extend back to the early 1990s, making McCain a latecomer to the debate. The regulatory efforts proved unsuccessful because of Congress’ complicated relationship with the firms, whose dominance in the home financing market makes their stability critical to the economy.” [Politifact, accessed: 9/19/08 <http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/721/> ]
McCain: Admitted That He Did Not Anticipate The Housing Crisis. In a meeting with the editorial board of New Hampshire’s Keene Sentinel, McCain said “So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.” [McCain Interview with editorial board of New Hampshire’s Keene Sentinel, 12/4/07,
]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmIJ5Aag2Q] MCCAIN WAS ONE OF 19 SENATORS WHO OPPOSED A BILL TO ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDENT REGULATORY AGENCY TO OVERSEE FANNIE AND FREDDIE
In 1992, McCain Opposed Establishing An Independent Regulatory Agency To Regulate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. McCain voted against the Federal Housing Regulatory Reform Act which would have created an independent regulatory agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to oversee the activities of Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. The bill passed 77-19. [1992 Senate Vote #137, 7/1/92]
Auteur van de boeken "Van Rotterdam naar het Witte Huis" (Obama) en "Project Homerus" (DSB)