Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac contributions

I recently found an article online detailing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions (representing a spread of almost 20 years). After seeing the list (available here: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/top-senate-recipients-of-fanni.html ),
I started to look into exactly who these people are. A few (the "Big 3" Democratic Senators at the top: Obama, Clinton, and Kerry) didn't seem to have any relevant connections. The rest of the top 20, however, DID have some interesting connections.

Almost ALL of them are connected to either the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, or to the House Financial Services Committee. Some, like Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) serve other functions; namely, they are high-ranking officials within their respective parties (Blunt serves as Republican Whip in the House, Pelosi is, of course, the Speaker of the House). Still others, such as Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL), serve on other committees; Representative Emanuel serves on the House Ways and Means committee (subcommittee on select revenue measures).

What does all this mean? The article points out that most of the congress-men and -women receiving money from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac are Democratic representatives. While this may be the case, the Republicans are certainly represented on this list as well. It seems that both parties are dirty in this case.

The government has decided to bail out these companies; the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout will cost a great deal: one source ( http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/treasury-set-bail-out-fannie/story.aspx?guid=46d1439e-a2c4-418c-9be0-09be0b9ee60d ) reports that:
"Some reports estimate the government's cash injection ultimately could be between $15 billion and $20 billion. ".
A bailout by the federal government will suck our tax-dollars into preotecting the interests of these companies. But who votes for such a bailout? Check the committees that these senators and congresspeople serve on; FM seem to have known exactly what they were doing when they contributed to these candidates' campaigns: protecting their own interests.

As a taxpayer who DOESN'T have a mortgage, I'm disgusted that the federal government would use MY money to bail out irresponsible investors and crooked mortgage companies. I'm completely disappointed in these Senators and Congresspeople, and even more so that they would be allowed to get away with this. But, I guess that's how our political system works.

Here's hoping for some less-corrupt leaders in the future.