Wall Street woes fodder for US Senate seat battle
Wednesday September 17, 2008
By: Kevin Landrigan
From: Nashua Telegraph
Wednesday September 17, 2008
By: Kevin Landrigan
From: Nashua Telegraph
CONCORD – The financial collapse of some of Wall Street's financial giants gave U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu and the campaign of Democratic nominee Jeanne Shaheen the latest battleground Tuesday.
Sununu vowed to oppose making taxpayers liable to investment banks or brokerage companies that face financial ruin due to subprime mortgage lending.
"As the market improves and these companies strengthen, I am determined that taxpayers are not put in the position they were put in the last year," Sununu told reporters.
But the Shaheen campaign said Sununu did little to make private lenders accountable in his 12 years on Capitol Hill, the last five as a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
"John Sununu has been in Congress for 12 years voting to put the fox in charge of the hen house," said Communications Director Kate Bedingfield.
"The root cause of the crisis is a rampant deterioration of regulation in the housing mortgage market. He did nothing to prevent it."
Sununu called it "very premature" for Congress to seriously consider creating a Resolution Trust Corp. to buy subprime assets as was created by the federal government during a real-estate depression in 1991 that led to the closure of New Hampshire's largest banks.
"I haven't seen any strong argument put together for the federal government to step up and start to buy private securities and assets," Sununu said.
Along with protecting taxpayers, Sununu said the Congress must follow through on more oversight powers it granted last spring over the government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that is financially linked to more than half of housing mortgages.
For five years, Sununu said he fought Senate Democrats to get these reforms.
He criticized Shaheen for advocating in February that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "use flexibility and common sense" in response to the housing crisis.
"Six months ago, Jeanne Shaheen was talking about giving them more flexibility, she has shown a lack of understanding and a lack of credibility," Sununu told reporters during a conference call.
The Sununu campaign cited a Feb. 3 op-ed Shaheen wrote on the issue.
"Congress needs to press government-sponsored entities, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to use flexibility and common sense to help Americans stay in their homes," Shaheen wrote.
The Shaheen campaign noted that its housing plan released in detail Feb. 28 carried strings with giving more freedom to the government-sponsored lenders.
"Reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Allow them to expand and ease the mortgage crunch, but the expansion of their portfolio caps must be tied to tighter regulation and independent oversight in order to prevent the accounting scandals of recent years," the Shaheen plan stated.
Bedingfield said Sununu's failure to get a full Senate vote on his own Fannie Mae reforms while Republicans controlled Congress only reveals his ineffectiveness.
"He is boasting about a 12-year record that has led to one of the greatest economic crises in decades," Bedingfield said.
Bedingfield cited Senate votes in 2005 to claim Sununu voted against cracking down on predatory lending.
"He protected predatory lenders and was looking out for the vendors rather than their victims," Bedingfield said.
Sununu campaign officials said the Shaheen camp votes cited were procedural or Senate Democratic proposals.
Sununu vowed to oppose making taxpayers liable to investment banks or brokerage companies that face financial ruin due to subprime mortgage lending.
"As the market improves and these companies strengthen, I am determined that taxpayers are not put in the position they were put in the last year," Sununu told reporters.
But the Shaheen campaign said Sununu did little to make private lenders accountable in his 12 years on Capitol Hill, the last five as a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
"John Sununu has been in Congress for 12 years voting to put the fox in charge of the hen house," said Communications Director Kate Bedingfield.
"The root cause of the crisis is a rampant deterioration of regulation in the housing mortgage market. He did nothing to prevent it."
Sununu called it "very premature" for Congress to seriously consider creating a Resolution Trust Corp. to buy subprime assets as was created by the federal government during a real-estate depression in 1991 that led to the closure of New Hampshire's largest banks.
"I haven't seen any strong argument put together for the federal government to step up and start to buy private securities and assets," Sununu said.
Along with protecting taxpayers, Sununu said the Congress must follow through on more oversight powers it granted last spring over the government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that is financially linked to more than half of housing mortgages.
For five years, Sununu said he fought Senate Democrats to get these reforms.
He criticized Shaheen for advocating in February that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "use flexibility and common sense" in response to the housing crisis.
"Six months ago, Jeanne Shaheen was talking about giving them more flexibility, she has shown a lack of understanding and a lack of credibility," Sununu told reporters during a conference call.
The Sununu campaign cited a Feb. 3 op-ed Shaheen wrote on the issue.
"Congress needs to press government-sponsored entities, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to use flexibility and common sense to help Americans stay in their homes," Shaheen wrote.
The Shaheen campaign noted that its housing plan released in detail Feb. 28 carried strings with giving more freedom to the government-sponsored lenders.
"Reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Allow them to expand and ease the mortgage crunch, but the expansion of their portfolio caps must be tied to tighter regulation and independent oversight in order to prevent the accounting scandals of recent years," the Shaheen plan stated.
Bedingfield said Sununu's failure to get a full Senate vote on his own Fannie Mae reforms while Republicans controlled Congress only reveals his ineffectiveness.
"He is boasting about a 12-year record that has led to one of the greatest economic crises in decades," Bedingfield said.
Bedingfield cited Senate votes in 2005 to claim Sununu voted against cracking down on predatory lending.
"He protected predatory lenders and was looking out for the vendors rather than their victims," Bedingfield said.
Sununu campaign officials said the Shaheen camp votes cited were procedural or Senate Democratic proposals.
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