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Obama gets big Bucks from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac
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by politisite | September 18, 2008 at 07:10 am
3265 views | 8 Recommendations | 11 comments
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Obama calling himself an outsider and agent of change has CEO of Freddie Mac on his Pay Role. The fact is that he has received over 500,000 dollars from folks within Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Some of Obama's biggest supporters come from within the Financials
Lehman Brothers collapse is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago.
Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs.
A group called the Center for Responsive Politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were Democrats and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama.
Now remember, he's only been in the Senate four years, but he still managed to grab the No. 2 spot ahead of John Kerry — decades in the Senate — and Chris Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional Democrats and the Clinton White House, designed to make mortgages available to more people and, as it turns out, some people who couldn't afford them.
Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington Democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket millions. The Clinton administration's White House Budget Director Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected $50 million. Jamie Gorelick — Clinton Justice Department official — worked for Fannie and took home $26 million. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama's VP search committee, has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae CEO job.
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Fubar61274
Houston, Texas, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (11)
at 07:15 on September 18th, 2008
[chuckle]
I see the new talking points are out.
at 07:19 on September 18th, 2008
It's a fact. You may find facts funny, but there are others who do the thing called "research" and then compile facts to draw conclusions. They used to teach that method in jr. high school, but apparently it's fallen out of favor in some camps.
at 07:24 on September 18th, 2008
I never had found GOP talking points funny. However, I often find them ludicrous, which is close but no cigar.
at 14:31 on September 18th, 2008
To say that I use GOP talking points is a total attack on my credibility and I resent it. Do you think for yourself, in your left leaning dissertations, or does the Democratic party provide them to you? See what I mean?
at 07:51 on September 18th, 2008
So, are these guys being investigated? These kinds of take-homes sounds awfully like looting to me.
at 07:57 on September 18th, 2008
Dodd, Biden, and Obama very deep in the scandel they are Blaming McCain and Bush for. Clinton signed the deregulation bill and this congress has done Nothing! Blame to go around as Bush Admin did Nada as well. I will be glad to see him Go!
at 13:35 on September 18th, 2008
politisite, I like this story. It's good stuff. Obama and McCain are more of the same, how likely are they to clean up the system that gets them elected? Nader, McKinney, Ron Paul, Kucinich would be a lot better
check fundraising stats at whitehouseforsale.org and opensecrets.org
at 14:21 on September 18th, 2008
Nader Maybe, McKinney is probably one of the worst options for president ever. Kuchinich is a nice guy but will not work with the GOP. Ron Paul has some excellent ideas and it is a shame he has no part in this election. I have interviewed him 4 times. McCain will work with Democrats and Obama is a Puff candidate that has absolutely no history of working across party lines. Thanks for the Link to Open secrets as they are the best way to find out who your candidate is beholden to.
at 17:55 on September 23rd, 2008
This story is biased as it doesn't note that McCain has received more than $169,000 from directors and lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the 2008 cycle alone. How much has Barack Obama received during that time? $16,000. The leaders of these two loan giants have contributed to McCain 10:1 over Obama.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/us/politics/10fannie.html
Maybe that's because McCain's staff is on the payroll of Freddie Mac?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/w24davis.html
at 18:26 on September 24th, 2008
Zichi,
Thanks for your concise comment which cuts to the bone. It can't be pointed out enough how misleading that $126,349 figure is. Down at the bottom of the chart where that figure originally was found on the Federal Election Commission disclosure pages it indicates that the number includes contributions from PACs and individuals.
Obama received a total of $6,000 from a Fannie/Freddie PAC — and only prior to his campaign for Presidency, when he announced he would no longer take any lobbyists PAC money.
The remainder were private donations from individuals who were employees of Fannie/Freddie, from the years between 1989-2008. The two companies at one time had over 12,000 employees. We are talking about individual contributions over a very long time span.
at 03:55 on September 29th, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employees donated $126,349 to the Obama campaign while they donated $21,550 to McCain. Corporations themselves are ineligible from donating to political campaigns. Whereas, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac board of directors and lobbyists donated $169,000 to McCain and his related committees, compared with $16,000 to Obama and his related committees.