Default Dean Adds To His Tea Party Creds

On Halloween 2013 Senator “Default Dean” Heller (R-NV) voted to sustain the Senate Republican filibuster of  Congressman Mel Watt’s nomination to be the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. [roll call 226]   “Default Dean” added another Gold Star to his Tea Party Helper chart with his next vote, another vote to sustain a filibuster — this time of the nomination of Patricia Millett to fill a vacancy on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. [roll call 227] * see previous post and The Republican Argument is Bogus. (pfaw)

Some Republicans groused that Rep. Watt, a Yale Law graduate with extensive experience in North Carolina politics, and a Congressman from N.C. in several sessions “lacked the experience to administer an agency as large as the FHFA.”   By the end of the day on October 29th it was obvious there were going to be Senate Republicans who would block an “up or down” vote on Watt’s nomination. [Reuters]

It would be instructive at this point to mention that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is the outfit that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Twins, and the objects of GOP calls for a full privatization of the secondary mortgage market.  Additionally, it should be noted that Rep. Watt’s nomination is the second to be blocked by Senate Republicans; former N.C. banking commissioner Joseph Smith withdrew his nomination to head FHFA in 2011 in the face of GOP opposition.  Finally, Rep. Watt is on record as supporting measures to allow bankruptcy judges to trim the principal owed on home loans.  It appears that this position is sufficient to render his service on the House Financial Services Committee inadequate to Republican purposes.  [BloombergNews]

Given the opposition to both Smith and Watts a sentient person could logically conclude that in this instance the GOP doesn’t want the FHFA to be fully functional.   If the deregulation of the secondary mortgage market is the desire outcome, and the repeal of the oversight agency is impolitic, then the obvious way to impede the regulatory process is to keep the agency headless.  That sentient person could also conclude that St. Peter’s nomination would be blocked, on the grounds that his previous experience was only as a “community organizer” and that his most recent housing experience comes solely from his residency in a gated community.

Senator Heller’s opposition fits neatly into this scenario when we notice that he is a supported of S. 1217 — a bill to privatize the secondary mortgage market.

“In 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken into government conservatorship and given a $188 billion capital injection from taxpayers to stay afloat. As a result of this bailout, the private market has almost completely disappeared, and so nearly every loan made in America today comes with a full government guarantee.  Despite this unsustainable situation, there has still been no real reform to our housing finance system since the financial crisis.”  [Heller]

The statement from Senator Heller doesn’t whitewash history — it merely leaves out a significant piece — like anything that happened prior to 2008.  Prior to 2008 the Mortgage Twins were hybrid-privatized secondary market financial agencies, and in the process of behaving like privatized secondary market finance operators they succumbed to the same avarice infecting the rest of the secondary home loan market — cutting back on home loan requirements and passing along risky financial products in the name of “managing risk.”   Further, there was a ‘silent agreement’ implicit in the operations of the Mortgage Twins before 2008 that the products it sold into the financial market did have the imprimatur of the federal government.

To boil things down to the core — what Senator Heller’s support of S. 1217 means is that he wants a return to the pre-2008 system, without any federal regulation of the secondary mortgage market at all.  Why would Senator “Default Dean” Heller want to confirm any nominee to head the FHFA when he’s supporting a bill that would eliminate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHFA within five years of the bill’s passage?

S. 1217 is warmly supported by the American Bankers Association and the Mortgage Bankers Association, and why shouldn’t it since it contains the following lovely loophole:

“Amends the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt covered securities insured by FMIC from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation in general and from credit risk retention requirements…”  [OC]

The “FMIC” is supposed to be modeled on the FDIC, and notice that according to S. 1217,  introduced by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), if the FMIC issues any “securities” those are exempt from regulation by the SEC.   Those who like deregulation of the financial markets will love this one.

Time and again, Senator Heller is fond of telling anyone who happens to be within range that he “voted against the bailout” as if he were somehow beyond the pressure of the lobbyists from the Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association — and yet rarely can one find a Senator so ready and willing to carry the water for MBA and ABA interests.

Madness in March

** Nevada’s own Sin City Siren has an outstanding Bracket, created especially for those who are interested in seeing how state and localities across this country are competing to see which can have the most regressive, reactionary, and repugnant statutes limiting the rights of women to make their own decisions (as in Small Government?).   Do click over and copy the brackets, and then share them with family and friends!

** The Nevada Progressive updates information about the continuing Soap Operas which are the lives of former Mega-Lobbyist Harvey Whittemore and the ever charming but perhaps a shade duplicitous Heidi Gansert.  Steve Sebelius added another page to the continuing drama that is Assemblyman Steven Brooks (D-NLV).  For the video version, see Ralston Reports.

*** The Nevada Rural Democratic Caucus reprints a good piece from Jim Hightower on how the GOP wants to transform Medicare into “We Don’t Care.”  For a refresher course in how Republicans have the wrong end of the stick on the Medicare issue, consult this March 10th post in Perrspectives:  In Five Charts. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-LoonyTunes) should get more exercise dodging questions from reporters about how she substantiates her claims on the floor of the House that the Affordable Care Act “kills people.” [ThinkProg]  For those in the fact based universe:

While the main coverage expansion provisions will go into effect in 2014, the ACA has so far saved seniors over $6 billion on prescription drugs, reduced administrative overhead, deterred private insurers from requesting double digit premium increases, kept millions of young people on their parents’ health care plans, and provided 34.1 million people with Medicare preventive services without additional cost-sharing. [ThinkProg]

*** And, if we thought the continuing Management by Crisis thing was over in House Republican quarters — here comes Speaker John Boehner with the Demand, (Demand I say), that every dollar increase in the debt ceiling (The Debt Ceiling I say) will “require a dollar in spending cuts.”  Another day, another manufactured crisis.   Before one gets too hysterical about The Great Big Debt Crisis — read “Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor Are Trying To Con You Into Paying Their Debts. ”

*** Things we could be talking about if it weren’t for the manufactured debt “crisis” compliments of the GOP majority in the House of Representatives:

(1) The report that nearly two out of three hate crimes committed in this country goes unreported. [The Grio]

(2) The filibuster of Richard Cordray’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. [TPM]  Of District Court nominee Elissa Cadish, who withdrew her nomination after Senator Dean Heller (R-NRA and Shooting Sports Foundation) questioned her bona fides on the unrestricted and unlimited right to pack shoulder firing missile launchers as prescribed in the 2nd Amendment. [Bloomberg] Or, the filibuster of Appeals Court nominee Caitlin Halligan, who had the temerity to do her job and participate in a lawsuit of behalf of the City of New York in a lawsuit again gun manufacturers. [Bloomberg]  Or the hold placed on the nomination of Scott C. Doney, to head the NOAA — Mr. Doney relinquished his nomination. [NOLA] Or, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO, and Tobacco Industry) placing a hold on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the EPA, because he has a problem with levee plans, which is interesting because McCarthy’s area of expertise is “fuel efficiency” and clean air administration. [LAT]  Here’s the list of nominations pending in Senate Committees.   Two days ago Bloomberg News oped asked “Are Republicans  Abusing the Filibuster?”  the answer still looks like YES.

***  Perhaps we could even be paying more attention to the latest report card release from the American Society of Civil Engineers on our nation’s infrastructure — hey! we’re up to a D+ now.  But, why worry — Nevada only needs about $2.7 billion to maintain and upgrade our drinking water delivery systems, another $2.9 billion to deal with our sewage; while we have 149 high hazard dams, and 40 structurally deficient bridges.  [ASCE]  Maybe we’re waiting for our kids and grandkids to pick up the bills?