Whoever said the IRS is “there to help”?

IRS exists for a very specific set of reasons, centered on providing federal government with a revenue stream to continue operating:

1) Administer and enforce the tax law Congress passes
2) Help taxpayers comply with the law and pay their congressionally mandated taxes
3) Come shake you down if you haven’t filed properly and/or paid your taxes

You’re incorrect, sir. State-chartered banks participating in federal deposit insurance (i.e., the FDIC system) are currently subject to both state and federal supervision. If the state-chartered bank is a member of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve administers federal oversight. Otherwise, if the bank is not a member of the Federal Reserve system (and they do exist), the FDIC oversees state-chartered banks.

Well the S&L’s really benefitted from government oversight… what’s that? Oh, required federal backing and had guys like Keating running around? So sorry!

I have pretty much had it with bailouts of companies ‘too large to fail’. There is no such thing. It is an excuse to pay off political cronies with the taxpayer’s money.

Good government is spare and lean government, not one out to ‘help you’, like the IRS. Always there to help, no?

The more I read of Thomas Paine, the more I become disenchanted with modern politics. Government is, indeed, the punisher, and it is unwise to hand it much to do.

Fannie Mae has been following Countrywide Mortgage, buying up the homes Countrywide forecloses on, covering the loans Countrywide bought from shady mortgage companies like AFS. If anyone – and hopefully it will be McCain-Palin – starts investigating this mess, they better be wearing a good pair of waders.

AubieJon on September 9, 2008 at 2:33 PM

Fannie owns most of those Countrywide loans. Countrywide sold 80% of its production to Fannie, and the subprime loans it did not sell to Fannie it packaged into securities that Fannie bought. The two companies came close to cornering the mortgage market and now tht it has crashed, you and I and our children are stuck with the bill.

They are able to buy loans, and then package them to investors ONLY because they have been implicitly backed by the US Government…

Take that backing away, and there is no reason for them to even exist. Loan companies will have to sell those loans, in packages, to investors directly, or carry them themselves.

Without that backing, the need for a middle entity ceases to exist.

I would also like to point out that it is the Federal Reserve Board who oversees the rules on these “banks”… they helped create the problem, but now we are trusting them with fixing it? And giving them a BLANK check with which to do so???

WDE to you, too!!!

In the future, Fannie, Freddie or any government organization should never insure a loan when the homeowner doesn’t have enough of his or her own capital in the investment.

If Mac want’s to avoid being nailed on an anti-Vet snafu, he might want to qualify this to avoid criticizing VA loans for veterans who after years or decades of service are most usually somewhat behind the power curve on capital and may never have had the opportunity to own a home their entire period of service. I truly doubt it was his intent, but enterprising liberals might use it.

While Treasury spends our money on this failure, Congress should ensure that they do not allow a repeat of the same structure that caused it.

Get real, Ed.

The one thing Congress does effectively is to compound problems.

P.S. I’m starting to be very sympathetic to groups that want to be out from under the onus of the fed gubbmint.

Yep. Jason Lewis’ take on this was break it up into several of fully private companies and give absolutely no implicit taxpayer backing.

Wrong. It needs to be explicit non-backing.

Also, I’ve heard the leftist press whine about the impact on the shareholders of these “companies”–are you bloody kidding me? Any fool “invested” in these companies should lose their shirt. Post haste!

After the government bails out FM&FM they should be forced to sell or auction off every loan they have to truly private entities and recoup as much of our money as possible. Then dissolve the entire FM&FM business and turn their headquarters into a prison for all the scumbags that perpetrated this fraud and crime on us. All of the CEOs and CFOs etc. assets should be seized. They should not be getting severence pay. They should be charged and imprisoned.

roninacreage on September 9, 2008 at 2:57 PM

I second the motion.

It should be a felony to directly lobby any officers of these companies (if they continue to exist) for any reason.

Homeowners must be able to understand the terms and obligations of their mortgages. In return, they have an obligation to provide truthful financial information, and should be subject to penalty if they do not.

Penalties MUST be a part of the other side as well, this is systemic corruption and deceit.
Too many lenders and closers fudge numbers. The realtors do it a lot too, they do it in order to make, or save, a sale.
.
Remember the illegal alien in CA that bought a $600,000.00 house while earning TWELVE BUCKS (yes-$12.00) an hour???
Think about that.
It had to be pushed thru with everyone’s knowledge, everyone that touched the paper knew.
That’s just one tiny example.

AubieJon on September 9, 2008 at 2:33 PM

WDE.

(crickets)

Maybe he has learned his lesson, and is waiting for McCain’s response so he knows what to say.

I absolutely agree with this though.

The challenge will be getting responsible adults into Congress to allow them to act. Without Congress, nothing will happen.

Common Sense on September 9, 2008 at 3:02 PM

It would be beyond compare to also send Pelosi and Reed packin’

All I can say is, I sure hope Johnny Mac and Sarah-cuda can think…and ACT…more proactively than their predecessors did. They’ve got my vote…I just hope they do the right things.

The challenge will be getting responsible adults into Congress to allow them to act. Without Congress, nothing will happen.

It will cost several hundred billion. It may cost as much as 2.5 trillion.

MarkTheGreat on September 9, 2008 at 2:54 PM

You are an even greater master in the art of shamanism, I can only presume.

John McCain and Sarah Palin co-authored

Liberal response: McCain wrote it and Palin just got coffee and made xerox copies! And she probably served moose burgers for lunch!