On Aug. 4, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker threw out Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. But don’t drop those invitations in the mail just yet. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has put that ruling on ice – at least until December, when the court will consider a request by Prop 8 proponents to dismiss Walker’s ruling. The court would do well, in the meantime, to read an op-ed by Edwin Meese III in The Washington Post. The former …
As President Obama today signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, two words were left unspoken: Fannie and Freddie. Yet they not only played a major role in creating the housing bubble that led to the meltdown of 2008, they stand today as the primary remaining bailout debtors to the U.S. treasury. As shown in this chart, the two bankrupt mortgage giants owe almost half — 45% — of the outstanding bailout money from the federal treasury. And as Heritage fellows David John and James Gattuso pointed out in …
Sen. Christopher Dodd insists that his financial reform bill is aimed at Wall Street companies. But USAA, the well-known financial-services company for members of the U.S. military and their families, is worried that it will wind up caught in the Dodd bill dragnet. In a rare move, USAA CEO Joe Robles recently sent an email to each of its members, asking them to contact their representatives in Washington and urge them to make a certain change to the Dodd bill. Specifically, Robles hopes to amend the portion of the bill …
