Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!

Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean! Please join fellow GOPUSA activists in petitioning President Bush for a full pardon for Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos.

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When Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and other upstanding Democrats point to the "failed policies" of the Bush administration as the cause of the current chaos in the financial markets, they are deliberately trying to transfer the spotlight from their own party's mistakes. The current crisis can be traced directly to President Clinton's revision of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

The revision essentially required banks to expand their loan portfolios, to include more low-income customers. Bank examiners rated banks on their compliance with these revisions. Community organizations such as ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) were empowered to comment on bank compliance. Banks quickly learned that a generous donation to these organizations was easier than defending themselves against complaints filed by these organizations. Loans made to low-income borrowers were immediately sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose policies also were revised to allow the purchase of these loans.

The task of revising Fannie Mae's regulations fell to Herb Moses, Director of Product Initiatives, who was also the homosexual "lover" of Rep. Barney Frank, who was a member of the House Banking Committee which had oversight of Fannie Mae. These policy revisions were, in hindsight, spectacularly stupid. Rather than income verification, and standard debt-to-income analysis, a welfare check stub, or enrollment in a credit-counseling program were acceptable as "proof" of ability to make mortgage payments.

Freddie Mac specialized in the repackaging of these mortgages into securities which carried the federal government's seal of approval, and resold them through the financial markets.

The structure of disaster was almost complete. The Clinton administration directed federal agencies to expand credit, particularly home loans, to low-income buyers. ACORN, and other community organizations were empowered to promote loans and encourage banks to make them, and Fannie and Freddie were instructed to buy the loans. The Federal Reserve joined the parade by reducing interest rates to help facilitate these loans.

No wonder the housing market exploded.

Countrywide, once heralded as the nation's largest CRA lender, with $600 billion in sub-prime mortgages, was among the first to fall. Lehman Brothers, an eager buyer of Freddie Mac securities, also collapsed. Then fell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the ripples are still rippling across the financial markets.

As early as 2004, the Bush administration tried to increase regulation of Fannie and Freddie, but ran into stiff opposition from Democrats, especially from Barney Frank, who was afraid that lending activities would be sacrificed in the name of market risk. Now, Frank is blaming the Republicans for failing to enact reforms that he and his party blocked.

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