Bachmann and Gingrich come down hard on federal government

Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich unleashed scathing critiques against the federal government, blaming it for causing the economic meltdown that has devastated the nation’s housing market.

“Do you think it’s right that no Wall Street executives have gone to jail?” asked moderator Karen Tumulty.

Bachmann put the blame squarely not on Wall Street but on the government. “The federal government that pushed the subprime loans, that pushed the Community Reinvestment Act,” she said.

Bachmann said it was Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd, authors of the Dodd-Frank Act, and signed into law by President Obama, which created sweeping regulatory reform, who were to blame.

“If banks failed to meet these rules, the federal government said, ‘We won’t let you merge, we won’t let you grow.’ They put American mortgages in a very difficult place. We had artificially low interest rates. ... And lending standards lowered for the first time in American history. The fault goes back to the federal government. Dodd-Frank institutionalized all these problems. It’s a jobs and housing destruction act.”

Gingrich was harsher. He said the group known as Occupy Wall Street had reason to be upset, but it was those in charge of the economy who were to blame for the current situation.

“Virtually every American has a reason to be angry, worried,” Gingrich said, adding that the protesters could be broken into two groups -- “left-wing agitators” and “sincere middle class people.” If they wanted to change things, he said, “the first person to fire is [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke, the second person to fire is [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner. The fix was put in by the federal government,” he said.

“If you want to put people in jail,” he added, “you gotta start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and the politicians.”

Moderator Charlie Rose interjected: “Surely you’re not saying they should be put in jail?”

“Politicians have been at the heart of the sickness that is weakening this country,” said Gingrich, dodging the question.