Despite Claims Today He Warned of this Crisis, McCain in 2007 Said He Didn't See This Crisis Coming

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

"Two years ago, I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CBS this morning. "The influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside the Beltway, old boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable and I warned about it a couple of years ago.”

How does this claim of foresight square with this interview that McCain gave to the Keene (NH) Sentinel, discussing the subprime mortgage crisis, in December 2007?

Q: “Well the dimension of this problem may be surprising to a lot of people, but to many people, to many others there were feelings that there was something amiss, something was going too fast, something was a little too hot. Going back several years. Were you one of them? Or, I mean you’re a busy guy, you’re looking at a lot of things, maybe subprime mortgages wasn’t something you focused on every day. Were you surprised?

McCain: “Yeah. And I was surprised at the dot-com collapse and I was surprised at other times in our history. I don’t know if surprised is the word, but...

"But I do rely on a lot of smart people that I have that are both in my employ and acquaintances of mine. And most of them did not anticipate this. Most of them, I mean I can find some that did. But, a guy that’s on my staff named Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, said that there was nervousness out there. There’s nervousness. There was nervousness that we had such a long period of prosperity without a downturn because of the history of our economy. But I don’t know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said ‘wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.'

"So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.”


Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/despite-claims.html

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BAM! McCain caught again. Must be cursing out Lexis/Nexis and The Google. :rofl:

And there's video. http://www.nhelects.com/NHPrimaryVideos.asp?MultiID=77&HTitle=VLTitle

[joshuasampson]

1. Another flip flop

I already lost count. An ad should be made out of this.

[Quantess]

5. To call it a flip flop is putting it mildly.

But I would be satisfied for the mainstream media to call attention to his whopper, even if they called it a mere flip-flop.

[fed_up_mother]

2. Just THIS month he's said the fundamentals are sound

Idiot.

Now, if the Obama campaign has any brains they'd be running that in a hard hitting ad.

Who are we going to trust with our future?

[Zenlitened]

3. John McCain is a liar.

Even people who once admired him are disgusted at what he's become.

[Bennyboy]

4. Contradiction here....

He did co sponsor a bill that added oversight.....
Edited on Wed Sep-17-08 01:13 PM by Bennyboy

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s2006...

I am not a McCain supporter by an stretch but someone posted this on another board I visit and was in the same type of argument about McCain's do nothing deregulate policies.

I would love to see why this not true, debunked? Bunked?

He did co-sponsor Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005

And said this on 5-25-06
"Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae's regulator reported that the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae's former chief executive officer, OFHEO's report shows that over half of Mr. Raines' compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator's examination of the company's accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation."

[RamboLiberal]

6. You're right apparently he did co-sponsor this in 2005

Did it get anywhere?

On edit it never passed. Was all Republican sponsors. Hagel, Dole, McCain, Sununu

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190

[mcg]

12. A thread about it ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4066094

[NashVegas]

7. Somebody Sent Me This In An Email

"I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole."


It needs to be pointed out Republicans controlled the Senate in 2005/2006.

[RamboLiberal]

8. CBS News

Obama meanwhile claims he saw the meltdown from the start and introduced a law to stop the shaky mortgages.

"…to stop mortgage transactions that promoted fraud, risk or abuse."

This claim is true. In fact, Obama introduced this 2006 bill trying to curb abusive lending.

But this was one year into his Senate career and the bill went nowhere. As for Obama's claim that McCain was nowhere …

This claim is false. The Fact is: In March of 2005, McCain co-sponsored a bill to impose new oversight on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - but that bill also died.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/17/eveningnews/realitycheck/main4456421.shtml

Looks like this one is a wash. Hope Obama campaign knows about McCain 2005 so they don't get trapped.

[FVZA_Colonel]

11. I doubt they'd miss something like that.

And as it stands Obama did try, but he was a young senator in the minority party; the chances of that making it into law were slim to none.

[Roland99]

9. Damn internets. Making dumbasses look like fools 24/7

[FLyellowdog]

10. Sniff! Sniff!

Are his pants on fire yet?