Corporate Welfare Housing Bailout Bill Passes
Congress passed a housing bailout bill by a vote of 272 to 152 that, according to the corporate bought media, is a “sweeping measure” that will “stave off foreclosure for 400,000 or more homeowners,” and allow the Treasury to “bolster confidence in Fannie and Freddie” by allowing the government to “temporarily increase its lending” and “buy their stock.”
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
That’s what they want you to believe.
What they don’t want you to know is:
- Where the money will come from to bailout Fannie and Freddie.
- A provision in the bill will increase the national debt ceiling by $800 billion.
- While the corporate media refers to this as a “$25 billion” plan, the final amount will likely be much, much higher. The Treasury’s previously limited $2.5 billion line of credit to Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac has instead been increased to unlimited. The Treasury can now buy an unlimited amount of Fannie / Freddie housing securities and stock. While this may help “bolster confidence” in these companies, don’t expect it to do much for the dollar! At one time, our national currency was backed by gold. More recently, it has been backed by US Treasury securities. Now it will be backed – at least in part – by Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac housing securities – securities that are collapsing on the open market because no one else wants them.
- The bill also gives big brother, big government, more police state powers, requiring anyone working in the mortgage industry to be fingerprinted.
- Buried deep within the bill, and not mentioned by any corporate bought media source that I am aware of, is the provision that every credit card transaction will now be reported to the IRS. How this fits in to the housing crisis is anyone’s guess.
Following is Ron Paul’s response to this “Mother of all Bailout” bill.