How Bill Clinton forced banks to make loans to poor people - the Hannity 5-Minute Lie part Duex

This is just outrageous. I was watching Sean Hannity tonight, and he and Ann Coulter told me about how Bill Clinton forced banks to make loans to people who might not be able to pay them back. I was so upset, I did a little research. Here is what I found out:

[The Act] requires the Secretary to establish specified housing goals for [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac], including goals for purchase of mortgages on housing for low- and moderate-income families (adjustable annually to meet unaddressed needs of such families for affordable housing), and on housing located in underserved areas (both urban and rural).

Requires the Secretary to monitor and enforce compliance with such goals, establishing guidelines, filing goal failure notices, and requiring (of noncompliant enterprises) submission of housing plans.

Authorizes the Secretary to issue cease-and-desist orders, subject to administrative hearings. Provides for judicial review of such orders by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Sets forth civil money penalties for noncompliance with housing plan requirements, ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 for each day of failure.

So not only did the government force banks to make mortgage loans to poor people, they also threatened them with FINES if they didn't do it!

One problem: the law I quoted above is the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992. That's right, 1992, when Bill Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas. (google "H.R.5334 ", it's the first listing, then click on "CRS Summary"). Not only that, but it didn't force banks to lend anything to anybody - it simply changed the standards for mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac could purchase from banks.

So Sean, I have to hand it to you, you at least made me work for this one (this took a fairly diligent amount of research, which apparently none of the sheep who watch you are willing to do). You also almost made it through 5 minutes - almost.

Another Hannity 5-minute lie. Adieu.

The 5-minute "Hannity Lying Game"

This is a blast. I've taken recently to actually watching the single dumbest human being alive, Sean Hannity, whenever I happen by the Faux News Channel. I used to just spare myself the aggravation - nevermind the lost minutes of my life - and keep going past it to the Golf Channel, but I remembered recently an interesting game Senator Al Franken once talked about, when he bet an assitant he could find a lie in one of Anne Coulter's books before his wife could put her lipstick on. He flipped open one of Anne's books to a random page, and lo and behold, found a boldface lie (see video here, it's truly worth the watch).

So anyway, I decided that I would watch Hannity for 5 minutes and see if he told a lie. Can you guess what the outcome was?

The ever astute Mr. Hannity was talking to the South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford, and in round about 3 minutes said one of the dumbest things I've ever heard: he actually said South Carolina taxpayers are going to be sending their money to states like New York and California, because unlike South Carolina, they are fiscally irresponsible. Now granted, there is no disputing the fact that New York and California are fiscally irresponsible - as a New York taxpayer, I ought to know - but to suggest that South Carolina has sent or will be sending its federal tax money to either New York or California is patently ludicrous.

Hannity Lying to His Listeners - click here

When I heard this, I literally laughed out loud. In about 18 seconds on my computer, I found the following information (which I knew already to be true, just not the actual numbers): for the most recent year that this data is available from the Tax Foundation, 2005, South Carolina was 43rd in federal tax dollars sent to Washington per capita, and 24th in tax dollars received, meaning South Carolina isn't sending their hard-earned tax dollars to New York, California, or anywhere else for that matter. South Carolina actually gets $1.35 in federal spending for every dollar it pays in federal taxes. New York and California, of course, are at the opposite end of the spectrum: they get 79 and 78 cents in federal spending, respectively, for every dollar in federal taxes they send to Washington.

Now Gov. Sanford, listening to Hannity's idiotic bloviation, replies "of course" as Hannity blathers on about how South Carolina will be propping up New York and California and about how fiscally responsible South Carolina has been - so fiscally responsible, in fact, that it is practically a ward of the federal government.

I would actually imagine that Sean knows full well that what he said is patently untrue, and I know for damn sure that the Governor knows that his state ain't sending a dime to New York or California or anywhere else. And this is why I hate people like Hannity: he has no problem whatsoever lying to his listeners, most of whom will not question him and find out for themselves whether he's right or not.

Deliberately misinforming people to push your own political agenda - ya gotta love Sean Hannity and Faux News.