Barney Frank Proposes Ending US Gambling on Home Owners

Even as Barney Frank champions the cause of personal freedom in pushing his bill licensing online gambling sites, the Massachusetts Representative lives up to his name by frankly admitting past federal policy seeking to make home ownership easily attainable may be a mistake. Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, suggested the government fold up the mortgage support programs Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The private companies, which received over $150 billion in federal backing, were designed to create easy avenues for residents to buy their homes under a concept that all Americans deserved a chance for home ownership. The policy backfired, causing the blind acceptance of bad mortgage loans and precipitating the mortgage crisis which led to the recent recession.

Frank’s committee has been handed the duty to alter the so-called “casino” environment for investors in the US marketplace, starting with home mortgages.

Frank defends his gaming bill by calling on the US ideal of individual freedom to choose; he pushes making home buying more difficult by defending the need for personal responsibility, the other side of the liberty coin.

“There were people in this society who for economic and, frankly, social reasons can’t and shouldn’t be homeowners,” Frank told Fox News. “I think we should, particularly, stop this assumption that you put everybody into homeownership.”

Freddie and Fannie’s almost-non-existent standards allowed many disadvantaged persons to receive mortgages, but many were unable to handle the monthly payments. Further, investors used the rules to buy up property on speculation, knowing the government would have to back any failures or missteps.

“Public policy has been too much to try to push people into homeownership,” concluded Frank.