Republican Presidential Candidates on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (ContributorNetwork)

According to a CNN report, Newt Gingrich started a consulting company after he left Congress, the Gingrich Group, and was paid $1.6 million to $1.8 million for consulting Freddie Mac. Due to the fact many believe mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were partly responsible for the collapse of the U.S. housing market, the candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination were asked for their opinions on this issue and corruption in Washington, in general.

Here is what they said, according to a debate transcript provided by the American Presidency Project:

* Newt Gingrich: "Barney Frank was in public office with direct power over Freddie Mac. He exploited that power just as Chris Dodd was in public office when he got special bargains from Countrywide, a firm that went broke. They were using power. I was a private citizen, engaged in a business like any other business. I worked for years with Habitat for Humanity. I think it's a good conservative principle to try to find ways to help families that are right at the margin learn how to budget, learn how to take care of a house, learn how to buy a house. And I'm not going to step back from the idea that in fact we should have as a goal, helping as many Americans as possible be capable of buying homes. And when you look for example at electric membership co-ops, and you look at credit unions, there are a lot of government sponsored enterprises that are awfully important and do an awfully good job."

* Ron Paul: "Well (Gingrich) has a different definition of the private sector than I have. Because it's a GSE, government sponsored enterprise. That's completely different ? the worst kind of economy. You know, pure private enterprise, more closely probably to what Gov. Romney is involved with, but if it's government-sponsored, it's a mixture of business and government. It's very, very dangerous. Some people say, if it goes to extreme, it becomes fascism, because big business and big government get together."

* Michele Bachman: "We know that (Gingrich) cashed paychecks from Freddie Mac. That's the best evidence that you can have, over $1.6 million. And, frankly, I am shocked listening to the former speaker of the House, because he's defending the continuing practice of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. There's a big difference between a credit union and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. And they were the epicenter of the mortgage financial meltdown. I was trying to see these two entities put into bankruptcy because they, frankly, need to go away, when the speaker had his hand out and he was taking $1.6 million to influence senior Republicans to keep the scam going in Washington, D.C. That's absolutely wrong. We can't have as our nominee for the Republican Party someone who continues to stand for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They need to be shut down, not built up."

* Mitt Romney, as reported by the Huffington Post: "One of the things that I think that people recognize in Washington is that people go there to serve the people and then they stay there to serve themselves. ... By the way, a very different number ($1.6 million) than (Gingrich) said in the first debate. He said $300,000 and he was there as an historian."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111221/pl_ac/10729015_republican_presidential_candidates_on_freddie_mac_and_fannie_mae

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