WALLACE: But, Senator, you voted for the $700-billion bailout that’s being used partially to nationalize American banks. Isn’t that socialism?

MCCAIN: That is reacting to a crisis that’s due to greed and excess in Washington. And what this administration is doing wrong, and what Paulson is doing wrong, is not going out and buying up home loan mortgages, home mortgages, and giving people new mortgages at the new value of their home so they can stay in their home. They’re bailing out the banks. They’re bailing out these institutions.

WALLACE: But you voted for that.

MCCAIN: Of course. It was a package that had to be enacted because the economy was about to go into the tank…. That’s the reason why we have governments, to help those who need help, who can’t help themselves, and when time of crisis to step in and do what’s necessary to preserve the lives and futures of innocent people. It wasn’t Main Street America that caused this. It was Washington and Wall Street.

MYLES

Bush suggested this in 2003.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing in 2003, a new agency would have been created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

But the Democrats said:
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee in 2003.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

And since the Dems killed McCain’s creation of an independent Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Agency which shall have authority over the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac).

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190&tab=summary

http://beltwaysnark.com/2008/09/16/john-mccain-supported-a-proposal-for-an-agency-to-oversee-fannie-and-freddiein-2005/

LEON