Who is to blame for the foreclosure crisis and the subsequent Great Recession that devastated the country in 2008 and for years afterward? Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who is likely to win the nomination barring a huge comeback from Bernie Sanders, has the answer: It was the Republicans and only the Republicans,according to a report in The Hill.
Speaking at a roundtable-style event in a donut shop in New Haven, Connecticut, over the weekend, Clinton addressed the audience about various current hot button topics, one of which was the housing crisis. Presidential candidates have largely been silent about housing and housing policy during their campaigns, though both Clinton and Sanders have unveiled grand plans to expand homeownership in the country.
“This foreclosure crisis, nine million people lost their jobs in the Great Recession, and five million homes were lost. And I put the responsibility squarely on the Republicans,” Clinton said, according to the Hill. “And I don’t say that to be partisan. I say it because, you know, during those eight years there were a lot of things that could be done that were not done to try to help people.”
Despite her bold accusations against the opposing party regarding the foreclosure crisis, Clinton did not offer any specifics at the event over the weekend as to how to fix things, according to the Hill.
Hillary Clinton
“It’s going to take everybody working to turn that around and to get back to where we’re really trying to take care of people in the economy, in the government, and that’s what we should be doing, that’s who we are,” she said.
Other high profile Democrats, among them Clinton’s rival for the party’s presidential nomination, Sanders, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) have blamed Wall Street for the financial crisis. During the donut shop event in Connecticut, Clinton made no mention of Wall Street investors or banks in relation to the crisis; in February, Sanders accused her of being “bought” by Wall Street after it came to light that Clinton accepted $675,000 from Goldman Sachs for delivering three speeches. Clinton said she accepted the money because “that’s what they offered” and insisted that she has “never changed a view or a vote because of any donation I ever received” from a Wall Street investor or bank.
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Their shareholders have to know that yes, they will fail. And if they're too big to fail, then under my plan and others that have been proposed they may have to be broken up. So I've said, if the big banks don't play by the rules, I will break them up,” Clinton stated. “And I will also go after executives who are responsible for the decisions that have such bad consequences for our country. There are a lot of things we've got to do in our country, reigning in Wall Street is certainly one of them.”
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| JUSTIN LEE THAYER |