Pelosi fallacy: Denying Dems’ role in U.S. economy bedlam

Poor Nancy Pelosi must be suffering from early dementia. She dismisses any Democratic responsibility for the current collapse on Wall Street (article, “Pelosi: Dems bear no responsibility for economic crisis,” Sept. 16).

I guess the House Speaker (D-Calif.) doesn’t remember the effort of the Clinton administration to push President Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act, twisting the arms of lenders to make home loans to people who couldn’t afford them in an effort to help them realize the “dream” of homeownership. (True, Bush also approved of homeownership for as many people as possible; he should have known better.) But to say Democrats had no role is to rewrite history. Political correctness overcame common sense and now we’re seeing the result.

Springfield, Va.

Fingerprints on Fannie, Freddie

From Mark Alesse

Is she kidding?

The Hill reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi disavowed all responsibility for the crisis on Wall Street. Her take on the situation had all the depth of a talking-points memo: “I think the American people have had it with this situation where the middle-income people in our country are not protected from the ramifications of the risk-taking and the greed of these financial institutions.”

Does she mean to include the “greed” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two financial institutions whose Democrat fingerprints are all over the sub-prime slime? No, probably not. In fact, it’s doubtful whether her knowledge of the matter runs that deep.

Pelosi again reminds us that Washington is populated with poseurs and politician know-nothings.

No wonder Congress is held in such low esteem nationwide. Perhaps when Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) finishes his refresher course on the definition of “taxable income,” he can help the Speaker understand the Community Reinvestment Act.

Albany, N.Y.

Both parties built a house of cards

From John Patrick Smith

Both the Republican and Democratic parties are bankrupt of any ideas for how to fix their mismanagement of the federal budget and U.S. economy.

For too long Congress has financed its deficit spending with policies and legislation that promoted lenient credit and lax regulatory oversight to encourage U.S. consumer borrowing in order to produce economic expansion.

The dot-com securities and sub-prime mortgage-market scams flourished throughout the 1990s and 2000s as result of lax regulatory oversight. Like a house of cards, these scams have come tumbling down, resulting in a wealth meltdown for the whole of the U.S. economy. Now that U.S. consumers are no longer able to finance their own debts, Congress is desperate to find revenues to keep the U.S. out of bankruptcy.

There was never a shortage of regulations — there was only a shortage of congressional funding so that the regulatory agencies could perform their oversight duties.

When redirecting blame and using pork-barrel politics to win re-election is the measure of success in Congress, why should the public expect any solutions from the Congress for the U.S. economic woes? The public should not expect Congress to mend its ways or to refrain from its abuse of office to win reelection.

Sugar Land, Texas