The housing veto threat? Oh, never mind

President Bush began the day sending out word that he would sign a massive housing bill, one he had sought since last August to deal with the credit crisis that has brought housing prices tumbling.

To do so, he would have to overlook his oft-repeated threat to veto the bill unless an offending $4-billion program of community development block grants was removed.

Veto threats are not made lightly; they are issued when legislation contains provisions the president just can't accept. So his decision to accept the bill, as written, suggested a major reversal.

Not so, insisted White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. Really, it was just a matter of accepting a bill that had support from both sides of the aisle -- a common practice, she said, even if a bill contains "a few things" to which the president might object.

This is how she presented the decision at her daily press briefing:

I actually don't think it's all that unusual. I mean, there's -- when legislation finally comes to the president's desk, it often has a few things in there that he might not be able to support or that he wouldn't have recommended, but when there is bipartisan support for a bill, he will sign it.

--James Gerstenzang

Photo: Ron Edmonds/Associated Press

Comments

[Web Smith]

The Fed argued for their creation after the panics, bank closures, and depression by saying that a central bank was needed to prevent those types of disasters.

After the Fed and banks pressured Congress to pass legislation that would protect them from bankruptcy fillings, they embarked and an unscrupulous and predatory lending campaign. The Fed accommodated them by increasing the money supply.

Now that they have, in collusion with other privately owned banks, created the very disaster that they are supposed to prevent, we are expected to bail them out. Homeowners are still not going to be able to pay their adjustable rate mortgages but, the banks will get more money to loan.

The bill also increased the maximum national debt by $800 billion to $10.6 trillion. This means that the Fed will be able to print more money and loan it to the government with interest and the people who own the Fed, instead of paying for their graft, will make more money. We will pay through taxation and inflation.

It is hard to say whether Congress is collectively stupid or collectively corrupt but there is no justification for letting them get away with this. Vote everyone who voted for this bill out of office.

[Shadow]

It's patently clear why Bush did a 180 on the housing bill: he needs to be able to run up more federal debt, in particular to pay for the Iraq Follies.

Sovereign wealth funds (meaning foreign governments) hold more than $1 trillion in Fannie and Freddie bonds. The biggest holder is China.

If the US gov't didn't prop up Fannie and Freddie, China would start dumping their Freddie/Fannie bonds on the open market at a discount, which would completely freeze the market for new US gov't debt.

Bush needs access to new credit like a crack addict needs crack.