Treasury briefs candidates on plan to seize Fannie, Freddie

[huckleberry]

OK, I admit that I don't understand this whole Fannie, Freddie thing but I at least know that it's the government takeover that will cost the taxpayers. Check out Palin's statement below and the reporter's comments....

By KEVIN G. HALL · © 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

The widening housing crisis took center stage on the presidential campaign trail Saturday after the Treasury Department confirmed to the candidates it was preparing a historic seizure of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

snip

McCain promised to get "real regulation that limits their ability to borrow, shrinks their size until they are no longer a threat to our economy, and privatizes and eliminates their links to the government."

Obama, too, has been critical, complaining that Fannie and Freddie should either operate as public entities without profit, or as private companies that won't be rescued if they fall into trouble.

McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Fannie and Freddie had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, however, aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization.

read more at.....
http://www.heraldonline.com/115/story/798203.html

[RoyGBiv]

1. Palin is an idiot.

id·i·ot /ˈɪdiət/
–noun
1. an utterly foolish or senseless person.

That being said, this is bad ... very bad. Horrible. Nothing the candidates say means anything. The government takeover is not what's bad; it's the fact the government takeover is needed.

I have a friend who works for Fannie Mae. He's been scared shitless for about a year now. What he worried about a year ago is what is happening now.

[SmokingJacket]

2. Obama is right, imho. nt

[high density]

3. Umm, Sarah, they are NOW going to be expensive for the taxpayers...

This woman seems to know even less than Bush about everything.

[Frank Booth]

4. Doh!

[VoodooGuru]

5. wow. A major government takeover of something, on the watch of Mr. Privatization himself?

While I hate that this has to happen, I do appreciate the grim irony that it's the mad privatizer's government that has to do it. Kind of a bitter lesson for the libertarian-core fringe to learn that sometimes, private enterprise really DOESN'T do a good enough job and the government has to come stop the fall from killing anyone - rhetorically speaking, you know.

Meanwhile, my inner 12-year-old chuckled at the headline that the candidates were being "briefed" on a plan to "seize Fannie." I'm not proud.

[DeschutesRiver]

6. I am gobsmacked. I can't even make a joke about this one

"McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Fannie and Freddie had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, however, aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

They have GOTTEN too expensive for the taxpayers? She actually thinks taxpayers are already footing the bill, when the whole point of the god damned announcement today was to place FRE/FNN into a conservatorship, and have us taxpayers NOW foot the bill for all the bonds sold, that might not be worth the flipping paper they were written on? THEY WERE A PRIVATE COMPANY!

She slipped her handlers to make one of her first off the roadmap comments, and the fucking bitch doesn't even know what a GSE is or how it is funded?

I am going to read a few more posts, and take my little white dog for a hike until I can unwind a bit. If these clowns get into high office, we are going to have whatever is worse than a Great Depression. I don't think they are going to win, but this stupidity and lack of basic knowledge from BOTH these candidates on how the economy runs is one of the most frightening glimpses I have had into the soul of their incompetence.