Coming Back to Bite Us

A few days ago, President Obama surrounded himself with grinning "scientists" and activists flashing gestures of victory as he signed away Bush's ban on spending our money to pay for research using the stem cells of aborted babies.

Compare that image to his signing today of the earmark-littered omnibus bill that will put us another $410 billion into debt. There were no cameras, no adoring throngs, no signs of victory. Instead, the president was basically in hiding -- perhaps a bit shamefaced at his inability to deliver on his campaign promises to do away with earmarks, to control a Democratic Congress and to bring real change to Washington. He admitted it was an imperfect bill, basically saying that he's still trying to clean up after Bush.

It's time for the truth brigade. The economic crisis we find ourselves in began -- not with the Iraq War -- but when the housing industry collapsed like a house of cards. And the roots of that crisis pre-date Bush.

"In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. ... Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stockholders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits," according to a Sept. 30, 1999, New York Times article.

That's right -- 1999. Ten years ago when Bill Clinton was focusing on crafting his presidential legacy.

"In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times," the article says. "But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s."

A bit of an understatement given the hundreds of billions Congress is shelling out in bailouts and stimulus. In this instance, it took 10 years for an ill-advised policy to come back to bite us. I wonder how long it will be before we start feeling the bite of Washington's current over-the-top deficit spending spree?