Fannie Freddie and liberal secrecy

Something that's faded from a lot of people's consciousness and never even made it to the consciousness of many, is the Democrats' dirty laundry in the monumental failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  It, as much as Obamacare should play a major role in the 2012 presidential election.  Thankfully, the Washington Examiner brings us a timely reminder as a result of some more secretive efforts of the Obama administration.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don't originate mortgages, but they end up owning most of them because they buy them and then resell them as securities, which are "guaranteed" by the government.

That guarantee is possible because Fannie and Freddie both began as "government-sponsored enterprises." Both were taken over by the federal government at the height of the Great Recession of 2008 after housing prices fell, millions of mortgages went into foreclosure, and home sales fell into a downward spiral that continues to this day. Since the takeover, taxpayers have shelled out in excess of $152 billion to keep Fannie and Freddie afloat. Just last month, Fannie Mae said it would need another $4.6 billion in federal aid after posting a fourth-quarter 2011 loss of more than $2.4 billion.

With those facts in mind, it is incredible to find the Obama administration claiming in federal court that Fannie and Freddie are exempt from the federal Freedom of Information Act because they aren't government agencies. That claim was made in response to an FOIA request filed last September by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group, seeking documents from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie.

The secretiveness is the tip of the iceberg.  What the Democrats are being secretive about is the real story.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being tooled as wealth-redistribution tools.  Arguably for the purposes of the poor a la the progressive agenda driven Community Reinvestment Act, but more directly for making administrative bureaucrats rich. 

Who knows what else has been going on at these former GSEs?  It's time to find out more.