GRAPHIC DEPICTS ROOT CAUSE OF FINANCIAL CRISIS: LIBERAL HOUSING POLICIES; IOW: BUSH DIDN'T JUST EMBRACE FANNIE MAE; HE GAVE HER A FRENCH KISS.

• BUSH'S "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM" REALLY MEQSN PRO-LIFE HAWK WHO IS A LIBERAL WHEN IT COMES TO GOVERNMENT SPENDING.

• LIKE THE GOOD LIBERAL HE IS, BUSH INCREASED DOMESTIC SPENDING TO HEIGHTS NOT SEEN SINCE THE GREAT SOCIETY.

• THAT'S WHY WE'RE IN THE MESS WE'RE IN: BECAUSE BUSH DID NOT GOVERN AS A CONSERVATIVE.

• THE FANNIE MAE CRISIS WAS DUE IN PART TO BUSH'S LIBERAL EFFORTS TO INCREASE HOME OWNERSHIP AMONG POOR MINORITIES WITHOUT DECENT CREDIT.

• BUSH DIDN'T JUST EMBRACE FANNIE MAE; HE GAVE HER A FRENCH KISS.

NYTIMES:

“The Bush administration took a lot of pride that homeownership had reached historic highs,” Mr. Snow said in an interview. “But what we forgot in the process was that it has to be done in the context of people being able to afford their house. We now realize there was a high cost.”

... Darrin West could not believe it. The president of the United States was standing in his living room.

It was June 17, 2002, a day Mr. West recalls as “the highlight of my life.” Mr. Bush, in Atlanta to unveil a plan to increase the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million, was touring Park Place South, a development of starter homes in a neighborhood once marked by blight and crime.

Mr. West had patrolled there as a police officer, and now he was the proud owner of a $130,000 town house, bought with an adjustable-rate mortgage and a $20,000 government loan as his down payment — just the sort of creative public-private financing Mr. Bush was promoting.

“Part of economic security,” Mr. Bush declared that day, “is owning your own home.”

... So Mr. Bush had to, in his words, “use the mighty muscle of the federal government” to meet his goal. He proposed affordable housing tax incentives. He insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meet ambitious new goals for low-income lending.

Concerned that down payments were a barrier, Mr. Bush persuaded Congress to spend up to $200 million a year to help first-time buyers with down payments and closing costs.

And he pushed to allow first-time buyers to qualify for federally insured mortgages with no money down. Republican Congressional leaders and some housing advocates balked, arguing that homeowners with no stake in their investments would be more prone to walk away, as Mr. West did. Many economic experts, including some in the White House, now share that view.

The president also leaned on mortgage brokers and lenders to devise their own innovations. “Corporate America,” he said, “has a responsibility to work to make America a compassionate place.”

THIS GRAPHIC DEPICTS THE ROOT CAUSE OF FINANCIAL CRISIS:
POLICIES STARTED BY LIBERAL CLINTON
AND EXPANDED BY LIBERAL BUSH

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S EFFORT TO INCREASE HOME OWNERSHIP FROM 65% TO 70% - WITHOUT ADEQUATE OVERSIGHT - IS WHAT CREATED THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS.

• FEDERAL SPENDING WILL ALMOST ALWAYS BE WASTEFUL AND CORRUPT BECAUSE THE BUREAUCRACY AIN'T SPENDING THEIR OWN MONEY;

• THEY ARE SPENDING OURS!

• THAT'S WHY FOLKS WHO BENEFIT FROM LARGE FEDERAL SPENDING PROGRAMS CAN BUY A SENATOR AND THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HE OVERSEES FOR $100,000 OVER TEN YEARS.

• THE ONLY SOLUTION IS HAVING THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE GOVERNMENT.