Hey Hey, Ho Ho, the Housing Slush Fund Has Got to Go!
The Bear on Jul 24 2008 at 8:26 am | Filed under: Economy
Anticipating legislative action on a bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the House tomorrow, the White House reaffirmed a veto threat Monday if the proposed package includes a money for state and local governments to buy real estate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded, “Let me get this straight. The president is asking us to do something quite significant on the housing crisis, and he is going to prevent local government from buying up these properties?”
Pelosi’s statement exemplifies the mentality on the left that makes it essential conservatives and President Bush stand firm on the $4 billion in grant money: liberals refuse to do something for the good of the nation (shoring up the financial system) unless they get something in return (a $4 billion slush fund to dole out to their political allies). It is exactly this sense of entitlement that got us into this current mess, and it must end if we ever hope to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
The most important thing to remember in this housing debate is that the government is the cause of, not the solution to, this housing crisis. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not founded by enterprising American capitalists. They are government-created relics of the New Deal and Great society.
Read more from The Foundry Blog
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
