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Budget and Accounting Transparency Act of 2012

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 7, 2012
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Finance and Banking Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Chair, a family that excludes from its family budget the mortgage payments it knows it must make is deluding itself and it's sabotaging its finances. That's precisely what the Federal Government is doing right now with respect to billions of dollars of liabilities that arise from its ill-fated sponsorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This bill takes a small step toward restoring honest and accurate accounting to our government's finances by requiring that the enormous liabilities incurred by Fannie and Freddie be accounted for in the Federal budget process, using exactly the same accounting standards for loans that we already insist upon with mortgage lenders.

I wish this bill abolished Fannie and Freddie outright. I wish it restored the days when banks and borrowers who made bad decisions took responsibility for them and didn't demand that their neighbors pay for their mistakes. But can't we at least agree that the public has a right to expect that the cost of this folly is honestly accounted for in our Nation's budget?

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