Barney Franks keeps stressing that he became the chiarman of the Financial Service Committee in 2007. Thus "what could he do?" This was not his fault. What he fails to mention is that he has been the ranking Democrat since 2002 and on the committee well before that. He also fails to mention that when the White House, in 2003, tried transfer oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress to a new agency under the Treasury, Barney faught the move indicating that "These two entities ... are not facing any kind of financial crisis." Thus these companies, which together owned or backed more than 50% of ALL U.S. home mortgages, it seems that Barney accepted responsibilty for the oversight. As such, Barney, when these two companies became anchored with the dead weight of your "affordable housing" policies, the "hobbling" of the U.S. financial system by these loan defaults can be traced right back to you and the other deadbeats in Congress.