they came down on ufer row ly. bret: they held the keys to the american dream. elected officials from both parties bought it. soon they were pushing the mortgage giants to fund more loans for moderate and low income americans. they began with a 30% quota. that was increased to 42% in 1995, to 50% in the year 2000. finally, by 2007 it had gone up to 55%. had to be to people who were at or below the median income. reporter: bret: fanny and freddie became the biggest buyers of securities from wall street that was to pete affordable housing goals or boost earnings in dispute. even barney frank, a stalwart advocate for affordable housing says the low income mortgage quotas were not a good idea. i think we made a great mistake. i ve felt that for a long time. you don t set an arbitrary gel
shepard: and fannie mae and freddie mac have borrowed from the treasury department to pay back . the treasury department. according to the wall street journal which is own by the parent company of had network, the two mortgage giants still asked the treasury department each quarter for billions and most of the money goes right back to pay the dividends to the same u.s. agency. last week fannie mae received $88.6 billion in federal taxpayer support and is asking an additional $2.6 billion but after it gets the money, the obligation to the treasury is $91.2 billion. freddie mac received $64.2 billion requesting an additional $500 million. and after it gets their money the total obligation to the treasury for preferred stock is
wisconsin potentially one of five states to our viewers that could prohibit atlantic tiff bargaining. we ll see if it happens right now. doesn t look like the governor is willing to bulge on that. jon. jon: congress is right now considering how to overhaul the housing finance system in this country, and a big question, what to do about fanny mae and freddie mac, the two mortgage giants, once considered by some to be stepping stones to the american dream. now they are seen by many as the poster children of what went wrong in the housing crisis. so what could happen to fannie and freddie and what does it mean for american homeowners and homeboyers. james rosen is in our d.c. bureau with part one of our series, shattered dreams. seems like the looming question about what to do with fannie and freddie is not getting the kind of attention spending cuts are getting. reporter: that s true. it stands to have an enormous impact on 0 homeowners and would be homeowners across the country. the o
this without impacting something you like. we can t so laser focused on the decifit that we ignore the obvious. we are still in a recession. we need to put america back to work. you can t end the deficit decifit unless you start putting america back to work. bill: there you have it on both sides and house republicans today moving forward at first to cut spending levels we ve not seen since 2008, budget chair paul ryan, eric cantor, saying they re looking to find savings everywhere. 245eur7 gearing up to show their hand, in a moment. alabama s jeff sessions says we re heading for a cliff and the president wants to hit the accelerator. stay tuned for that. first, though, they are the mortgage giants at the center of the housing collapse, and they re getting sued for fraud and you, america, are paying for it. good morning, everybody! i m bill hemmer. martha: that s a great way
budget. now, with the republicans controlling the house he ll be able to make sure that his budget proposals are actually voted on, and ryan says he will only agree to extend the country s debt ceiling, which will be necessary this spring, if there are, quote, substantial spending cuts and controls. jenna: that has to be done by the end of march, so that s certainly coming down to the wire. thank you very much, wendell goler at the white house today. jon: here s a stoafer that s story that s not going to make you happy, the mortgage giants at the center of the 2008 housing collapse, they re getting sued for fraud and guess who s paying their legal bills? also the accused arizona gunman enters court, expected to enter a plea on federal charges. we ll have details on what s ahead for him in court, next. we know a lot of you are online while you re watching. i ve been chatting with some of our friends in the chat room already. during the break, check out the hottest headlines by log