{"id":19255,"date":"2013-10-31T12:16:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T16:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=19255"},"modified":"2013-10-31T12:17:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T16:17:29","slug":"gse-reform-bills-fail-to-sufficiently-protect-taxpayers-and-private-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/19255\/gse-reform-bills-fail-to-sufficiently-protect-taxpayers-and-private-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"GSE Reform Bills Fail to Sufficiently Protect Taxpayers and Private Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/congress-blog\/economy-budget\/188712-proposed-bills-fail-to-fix-fannie-and-freddie\" target=\"_blank\">an op-ed published yesterday\u00a0on <em>The Hill&#8217;s <\/em>Congress Blog<\/a>, CFIF Sr. Vice President Timothy Lee\u00a0writes how legislation\u00a0advancing in the House and Senate to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fail to sufficiently protect taxpayers and private investors.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, Lee focuses on the PATH Act, sponsored by Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) in the House, and the Housing Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, sponsored by Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) in the Senate.\u00a0\u00a0Not only could both pieces of legislation\u00a0&#8220;end up putting taxpayers at even greater future risk,&#8221; Lee writes, but in addition:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[B]oth proposed bills fall terribly short in terms of protecting the rights of private investors in Fannie and Freddie, many of whom were actively encouraged by federal regulators to take their risk. \u00a0Not only would it be inherently unfair for the federal government to undercut their bargained-for investment rights, it would also send a terrible signal to future investors. \u00a0When even Ralph Nader laments that the federal government unfairly threatens to turn those private investors into \u201czombies,\u201d the impropriety of the government\u2019s proposed course becomes even more obvious.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, if Congress seeks to eliminate both GSEs, then using something approximating the existing bankruptcy process would be a far better option for all involved. \u00a0Under that process, the government, taxpayers and creditors would be treated more fairly, and taxpayers would not be stuck with trillions in liability. \u00a0 While not ideal, at least that would constitute an orderly and transparent process, one that more closely adhered to the rule of law on which our society is ostensibly based.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lee concludes by warning, &#8220;unless and until the bills are significantly revised, American taxpayers and private market investors stand to lose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire piece <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/congress-blog\/economy-budget\/188712-proposed-bills-fail-to-fix-fannie-and-freddie\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an op-ed published yesterday\u00a0on The Hill&#8217;s Congress Blog, CFIF Sr. Vice President Timothy Lee\u00a0writes how legislation\u00a0advancing in the House and Senate to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fail to sufficiently protect taxpayers and private investors. Specifically, Lee focuses on the PATH Act, sponsored by Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) in the House, and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4176,1174,1175,4355,2102,563],"class_list":["post-19255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-bob-corker","tag-fannie-mae","tag-freddie-mac","tag-gse-reform","tag-jeb-hensarling","tag-mark-warner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19255"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19260,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255\/revisions\/19260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}