Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spend million on Washington Lobbyist
By lilwonders
@lilwonders456 (8214)
United States
September 18, 2008 12:13pm CST
FOr years BOTH companies have been spending millions on lobbyist, power brokers and political contributors to keep things in washington going their way. Looks like it paid off with the bail out.
Over the past decade BOTH companies have made the top 20 list for lobbyist spending. Major players in thier "army" of supporters are now in both McCain's and Obama's campaigns. WHich means either way, the next president will owe them and take care of them. They have also given major money to several congressional elections. Looks like they have most of congress in their pokets.
How does this make you feel? Should this be allowed? How do we stop this kind of actions? Especially sense we the tax payer are not going to foot the bill for this bail out sense our elected officials are now bought and paid for by them and other companies.
2 people like this
2 responses
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
19 Sep 08
...That explains everything.
Allowed? I guess not, seeing as it makes people in Washington loyal to companies and banks more than the people. How do we stop them? I'm not sure. Lobbying is a business and sometimes it actually does some good, but all we ever hear about is how it fosters corruption.
@gewcew23 (8007)
• United States
18 Sep 08
Just to start this discussion out I must say that I do not believe that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are companies but government agencies masquerading as companies. How many private companies do you know, Lilwonders, that were created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Not to many except the two we are talking about right now. Even the names, Fannie Mae stand for the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie Mac the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Yes I do understand that these two "companies" were converted to private, but once a government agency always a government agency. So when you see a story of lobbyist from these two "companies" in bed with politician, I say go figure. At one time both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taxpayer funded and now it has come full circle. To stop non sense like this from happening we need to limit what Congress can spend money on. If a Congressmen or Senator cannot earmark something then the buying of votes will just go away. There will always be lobbyist, and lobbyist are a good thing. Let me explain, say you and a some others decide to take an issue to a politician, you are a lobbyist. Even funding a politicians campaign that supports what you support is what in fact lobbyist do every day. The problem is when a lobbyist ask in return for money for a project. If Congress could not just wave a magic wand and spend whatever they wanted to, then this form of quid pro quo would cease. I will go back to an earlier discussion I wrote, that was not to well received by the MyLot community, that if taxation was voluntary then these could not happen because Congress would have to prove that what they needed the money for was actually going to be used for what it was suppose to be used for.
