We shouldn’t shoulder toxic debt

Skip Blough, North Las Vegas

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson wrote an op-ed piece in Saturday’s Sun, spinning the ongoing housing foreclosure crisis. Mr. Atkinson is obviously not an historian.

In 2003 Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were bundling and selling zero-down loans to banks and insuring them by U.S. taxpayers. During congressional hearings in 2004, Republicans were asking for more oversight and regulation of Freddie and Fannie and these potentially toxic loans. Democrats ignored them and gleefully continued the insanity. Wall Street bankers were doing what the government was telling them to do.

There are plenty of underwriters who provide safe, secure refinancing options for people who are underwater with their mortgages. Taxpayers shouldn’t be insuring additional toxic debt. Taxpayers are also on the hook for billions of dollars in student loans.

It is time to stop the entitlement insanity.