We are living through dangerous times, destined to be as consequential as any in our nation’s history. The unrelenting, vicious assaults on the Constitution, free markets, personal liberties and homeland security — orchestrated by elected “public servants” — have stirred Patriots’ hearts and strengthened our resolve.
Amid the frenzy of news, it becomes all too easy to lose sight of the reckless neglect of a few that led us into economic panic and set off a once unthinkable chain of events: the election of radical President Barack Hussein Obama; denunciation of the War on Terror; the stifling of business and entrepreneurship; the beginning of an era of permanently high unemployment; and the passage of nationalized health insurance reform that will destroy an industry and alter the relationship between the federal government and American citizens.
This horrifying progression might never have come about if not for a deliberately orchestrated real estate bubble, a sham perpetrated upon millions of people under the pretense that a signature on a no-document loan contract was the preferred path to the American dream. Just as historians perpetuate the myth that President Franklin D. Roosevelt led America out of the Great Depression, today we are bombarded by the equally mythical charge that greedy, unregulated financiers led American into the Great Recession.
In fact, the leaders were greedy, unregulated members of the U.S. Congress. I was reminded of their tragic deeds when reading a recent Wall Street Journal review of author Roger Lowenstein’s new book, The End of Wall Street.
The very same Senators who today are pressing for massive financial and banking “reform” stood three years ago at a crossroads, and chose the politically expedient course in the face of dire warnings. In one concise paragraph, reviewer Dennis Berman recounts how Sens. Charles Schumer (at left, D-N.Y.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) betrayed the United States of America.
“(I)n the summer of 2007, (the Treasury Department sought) to rein in Fannie (Mae) and Freddie (Mac), whose account books were showing disturbing levels of risk. Treasury officials visited Schumer’s office to express their worries. ‘Schumer made a show of clasping his hands and accused the officials of being ideologically ‘handcuffed’ to the far right—which the officials found highly insulting.’ To Mr. Schumer, Fannie and Freddie were engines for democratizing home ownership and not to be tampered with. (Author) Lowenstein notes that other Treasury representatives could not even get an appointment with a staffer for Christopher Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman.”
Dodd and Schumer had a giddy accomplice in the House of Representatives named Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
After 30 years in the Senate, Dodd’s popularity has deteriorated so dramatically he will not seek re-election this fall. We can only pray that the voters of Massachusetts and New York will punish his colleagues, and that history will judge the trio as enemies of democracy.