Democrats Trying For Repeat Of Housing Disaster

One of the causes of our housing crisis was the CRA… the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Essentially, it required banks to provide home loans to those who couldn’t afford it. Now the Democrats in Congress want to STRENGTHEN the CRA, making it apply to credit unions and other non-bank institutions. This will just make the current situation even worse, and result in future housing crises.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Democrats-on-path-to-repeat-housing-disaster-8275069-60060902.html

The policy ended in a lot of people losing their homes. Now, Johnson's bill would ensure more of that by applying CRA's lending requirements not just to banks but to non-bank institutions like credit unions, insurance companies, and mortgage lenders. It would also make CRA explicitly race-based by, in Johnson's words, "requiring CRA exams to explicitly consider lending and services to minorities in addition to low- and moderate-income communities."

Denying that CRA, Fannie and other institutions played any role in setting the stage for disaster, they're proposing more of what helped get us into trouble in the first place. It's no way to fix the problem.

Government passed a law and pushed activities that resulted in people getting home loans who couldn’t afford them… and that’s at the root of what caused the housing meltdown. And we can’t fix the problem caused by one law by making it stronger or passing another law. The thing to do is recognize that these kinds of efforts have real-life consequences and REPEAL the CRA.