Sherrod Brown Goes on the Attack, Badly
The inauguration hasn’t even happened yet, and already the Democrats are mindlessly flailing against the Trump administration. Thus last week Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Treasury secretary-designee Steve Mnuchin that seemed to take Mnuchin to task for his sin of having once been a banker and, worse, a hedge fund operator. “The American public deserves to know where Mr. Mnuchin stands on the important housing and finance issues that he will oversee,” Brown said in a statement released with the letter. “While he made a fortune from the financial crisis, far too many Ohioans have yet to recover from it.”
The “fortune from the financial crisis” Brown is referring to has to do with the government-assisted resolution of the old IndyMac (now OneWest) where Mnuchin was installed as CEO. In the course of getting things turned around, OneWest (gasp!) foreclosed on 36,000 defaulted mortgage borrowers. Brown also asked Mnuchin, who’s said he wants the federal government to divest its ownership of its Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stakes, how “your past business—and presumably social—connections to hedge fund partners who invested in preferred shares” of the GSEs would affect his policy views.
I have just one question: is this the best Brown can do? Here his party just got walloped in an election that put the Democrats in a weaker position nationwide than they’ve been at any time since the 1920s, and all the Senator can come up with is a gripe about OneWest’s legitimate foreclosures on defaulted borrowers. I don’t like seeing people lose their homes any more than anyone else does, but that’s what happens when you fall behind on your mortgage. This was a government-assisted deal, remember, so that Mnuchin’s and OneMain’s actions saved taxpayers millions of dollars. In the meantime, the recession’s over, the housing market has recovered, and foreclosures simply aren’t the hot-button issue that they once were. Brown’s own Ohio voters seem to understand that—which is why they voted for Trump last month rather than Hillary Clinton.
Sen. Brown’s letter to Mnuchin last week was simply a standard-issue partisan hatchet job. Brown likely has zero interest in what Mnuchin’s actual policy views are, and instead merely wants to make Mnuchin look bad. That’s his prerogative, I suppose. I’m just surprised he’s being so blatant and simple-minded about it.
What do you think? Let me know!
7 Responses to “Sherrod Brown Goes on the Attack, Badly”
Brown just wants to get out ahead of whatever idiotic statements Elizabeth Warren will be shrieking soon. Their whole game is stoking outrage and trying to create a victim class they can then pretend to be the champion of. They know the people who actually listen to their unsubstantiated allegations don’t care about the truth anyway.
If he has nothing to hide, answer the questions. Unless he has something to hide, then let shills write dramatic defense pieces, condemning anyone who would dare ask tough questions. That’s the playbook, right there.
“If he has nothing to hide” is the language and thinking of socialists. How about this? Mnuchin will provide the documents and answer the questions legally required…. and not give two flips about the “demands” of petulant children like Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren.
You sound like a petulant child with your response. Kind of typical of Trumpians, who are what they say others are.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/15/news/companies/mnuchin-reverse-mortgage-foreclosure/
Nothing to see here folks. How dare Brown ask questions about this stuff. Just confirm this guy and move on.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a capitalist?
About par for Sen. Brown, which means it’s a triple bogey. Not the sharpest tool in the shed; will most likely verbally impale himself if you let him rant long enough. Entertainment value is not as high as with Warren or Schumer, but then, this is slow news period, so he figures to get a bit of air time before going back to sleep for the winter. No harm done.
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