Barney Frank

I just would say that the gentleman from California previously had agreed with some of us that you could be able to get a house in the FHA for up to $729,000.

From my recollection, I was struck by the gentleman talking about those figures, that they were too high, because the last I heard, the gentleman and I were together in trying to establish--

The gentleman is listing those numbers. Would the gentleman tell us what the maximum number is he thinks people should be eligible to get a house through the FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

We were told, for instance, by Detroit and Cleveland, they have abandoned property. There is no owner they can find. Who's going to pay to knock it down?

What if it is abandoned and it is of not much value and has to be torn down, so people buy it and tear it down?

No. I will yield for the purpose of asking the gentleman a question. He said it's possible to find the address and the owner. I am asking him to live up to what he said. Can he tell us who the owner is? He's got the picture of the…

No, I don't think any private entity would--I'm sorry. May I answer the question? That's why we want to give money to the cities so they can tear it down, because otherwise they'll be stuck with it. I don't think any private investor would…

Here's the deal: 1975 is when it happened in Pennsylvania, not in America, if he had been listening carefully. Secondly, in 1995 we didn't have this foreclosure crisis. Third, as to was this just a new program, in fact, this program for…

I reclaim my time. Understand the difference, ``directed'' and ``allowed.'' Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac never originated a loan. They could not have directed anybody to do anything. They were the secondary market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…

I have to respond to what I just heard because it simply isn't true. The notion that the government directed people to make these loans is not true. I don't understand what directive the gentleman is referring to. I would be glad to yield…

The program is called the Emergency Mortgage Relief Program, meaning it leaves open what kind it would be.

Reclaiming my time, no, that's not what the gentleman is saying. The gentleman is completely contradicting himself. He says it's a grant program. First, he was contradicting the other gentleman from Texas. Now he's contradicting himself…

There were two ways we could have dealt with it, yes. The gentleman and the Obama administration on one side. I disagree with the President. We could have avoided that by reducing American cotton subsidies to the same amount as we did with…

The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green) in the committee offered amendments that would have provided some substantive protection to veterans. My Republican colleagues neither wanted to provide help to the veterans nor be caught not…

The problem is the ambiguity is substantially similar. It kills this program, but it bans things that would be substantially similar so that innovator private sector entities trying to do something would be deterred because no one could…

This is not a $50 million expenditure for 40 loans. The $50 million has not been given to anybody, not a penny of it. It has been put in a reserve account. Fifty million has been set aside in a reserve account. It was disbursed from the…

Fifty million has been set aside in a reserve for defaults if and when they come. Not a penny of it has been given to anybody. It is simply sitting in that account, in case, and the 42 loans have nothing to do with that. The 8 billion is a…

When you get from Alaska to Florida, don't you have to pass Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina? Because the three of us think it's a terrible idea.

Well, I didn't know how long it was going to take my Republican friends to going from talking about their superior virtue to saying they were just like us. It took less time than I thought. But I would also say that, in the bills that came…

As I understand the arguments of the chairman and the ranking member, it is we are going to get rid of these eventually, but let's not do it too quickly because we might save money prematurely. I have never heard a weaker defense for…

And when we saw that CBO did that, we decided to offset that, so we did, as the gentlewoman indicated, go to the IRS. And I do want to say the gentlewoman is, I guess, is being very responsible, the chair of the subcommittee, she is…

I know that the proposals we have made to reduce at the GSA and the IRS go too far. I will point out again that they are a small percentage of the very deep reductions made by the subcommittee. My hope is that the House will demonstrate…

I spoke to the people at the subcommittee who worked at them and I think the cuts are too deep.

Thank you. Yes, I think it is unfortunate. Of course our cuts are much smaller by multiples than the cuts inflicted by the subcommittee majority.

In the first place, our additional cuts are a small percentage of your cuts to the IRS and the GSA, and I hope they are restored when we get a broader sets of things. But the basic point is, yes, there were problems with 2004 and before. I…