It’s Christmas in July. And Mel Watt is freakin’ Santa Claus.
The guys who aided and abetted the 2008 mortgage crisis are getting an early Christmas present — paid for by US — 
courtesy of Charlotte’s favorite big-spending, race-agitating former congressman:
[…] The chief executives of government-controlled mortgage-finance firms Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac will get multimillion-dollar paydays thanks to a big raise approved by the companies’ regulator over the objections of lawmakers and the White House.
In separate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that their respective CEOs, Timothy J. Mayopoulos and Donald Layton, would have a total annual target compensation of $4 million each, effective Wednesday.
The salaries of Messrs. Mayopoulos and Layton had been capped at $600,000 for the past two years. […]
Gadzooks! From $600K to $4 million per year! WHO could be responsible for something like this? (And, um, where do we apply for a job with said individual?)
As food for thought, here is the driveby media expressing outrage over the CEO of Duke Power — a completely private company — getting her pay raised from $500K annually to $1.2 million.
[…] Messrs. Mayopoulos and Layton and the companies’ boards declined to comment through representatives. In May, the chairmen of the companies’ boards said higher compensation was necessary for retention and succession planning issues.
But in granting the pay increase, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt defied the White House and some lawmakers who said the raises weren’t appropriate for companies still backstopped by taxpayers.[…]
Seriously? Are we really expected to believe that ol’ Mel and Big Barry argued about this, and ol’ Mel just did it anyway? Seriously?
The U.S. Treasury Department “does not support FHFA’s new approach to CEO compensation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and urged the agency to reject any increase,” said a Treasury Department spokesman. “While FHFA ultimately has sole authority over executive compensation at both enterprises, Treasury has consistently recommended that existing limits on compensation continue given the taxpayers ongoing backstop of both enterprises.”
In a statement, Mr. Watt said that the new pay packages are “consistent with FHFA’s statutory responsibilities to ensure safety and soundness and a liquid national housing finance market.” He added that the structure of the identical pay packages, which include
deferred salary of $3.25 million, would “promote CEO retention, allow reliable succession planning and ensure the continuity, efficiency and stability of Enterprise operations.”
Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the government in 2008, eventually receiving $187.5 billion in bailout money. In the past few years, they have become highly profitable, sending the U.S. Treasury more than $230 billion. Rebuffing calls to release the companies, White House officials have said Fannie’s and Freddie’s future should be determined by Congress.[…]
Good point. Why isn’t the GOP-controlled Congress clamoring to get this albatross off of the government dole?
Apparently Watt and the rest of the crew in DC learned nothing from the 2008 crisis. Here’s ol’ Mel trying to reintroduce the very same rules — giving mortgages to anybody with a pulse, basically — that led to the 2008 mess.
chuckle !
everything changes but remains the same
until enough of us who write their paycheck….
well..
You know the rest of the story line….seems age old now
my Q is When?
Lots of folks came together and made changes in early June in Raleigh. Time and accountability will tell.
When are we going to translate that to larger battlefields?
We all seem to like our own corner to pee in
When, or are we ever? going to sacrifice those sacred corners and coalesce into a force that i like to think happened over at the State Capitol back in June?
Folks, the worst evidence of the few overcoming the multitude happened last Thursday and Friday. IMHO
The best evidence occurred getting on for 250 years ago.
It is your 4th of July they gave. Think about it.
The Few, the Reasoned, the Passionate, the Provocateurs…defeated the greatest power in the world.
Can we not do the same if we can come together against the enemies of our Republic?
You are spot on. The country is in the toilet and the bowl is swirling. There is not a lot of time left.
We need to prioritize targets:
1) We nned a real Republican as presidential nomnee, someone like a Ted Cruz, not a weiner Obama Republican like Jeb Bush. We need to send money and work our primary.
2) We need to get rid of the weiner Obama Republicans from our delegation in DC. The top two who need to go are Tricky Dick Burr and Renee Ellmers. We need to get to work in the primaries. There is already a solid candidate against Ellmers. Now se need one against Burr. There are lots more who also need to go, indeed the whole delegation other than Meadows and Jones. We need candidates and we need to get to work in the primaries.
3) We need to protect the solid conservative real Republicans in the delegation in DC, Jones and Meadows.
4) On the state level, it would be nice to have a better candidate for governor, but right now the danger level is much higher at the federal level. There might be more Republican targets of opportunity among the liberal Obama Republicans in the legislature, and those we ought to go after everywhere we can.
5) We need to finish the job on state party leadership with the National Committee positions next June. That is especially true as to defeating liberal Obama Republican David Lewis as National Committeeman. There are so many issues Lewis has been a leading liberal on in the General Assembly it makes you want to puke. He badly needs to go.
Ted Cruz is the best man. He needs $! He can’t keep up with the liberal media and Jeb news. The uninformed Fox viewers are starting to suck up to Jeb. ! Believing he is the only one who can win! I am experiencing it in my district as we speak.
I wish Brannon would challenge Burr.