United Liberty

In 2003, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and his colleagues defended housing giants, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:

‘’These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’’ said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ‘’The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.’‘

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

‘’I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,’’ Mr. Watt said.

Frank also denied the existance of a housing bubble in 2005:

Since the financial crisis began, the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, entities created by Congress, have received over $126 billion from taxpayers through bailouts provided by the government, and it appears that they will be getting more:

Freddie Mac on Wednesday requested another $10.6 billion handout from the federal government.

The housing finance company, which reported an $8 billion quarterly loss, was put into conservatorship by the government during the height of the financial panic in September 2008 along with its twin Fannie Mae.
[…]
The two companies essentially have been given a blank check from the government since Treasury in December lifted a $200 billion limit on the backstop for each.

Taxpayers are essentially on the hook for hundreds of billions in home mortgages since has Congress essentially backed loans through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. And since the toxic assests that TARP was supposed to take off the books from troubled institutions are still there, the problem has only been delayed. We still aren’t through the housing crisis and the worst may not have hit us yet.