Barney Frank Demands: Lie For Me!

Honesty in bond ratings is an absolute necessity for the market to operate fairly and openly. Barney Frank would agree - as far as private bond issues go - but when it's the government's bonds that are in danger of recieving a less-than-steller rating, well - Barney goes ballistic. And in true Democratic style, he threatens to use the power of the law to go after those who do not bend reality to his bidding:

On Tuesday, Moody's Investors Service said it had assigned a negative outlook to all U.S. local government ratings, the first time it assigned an outlook to the sector, which contains 52,000 cities, counties and school districts.It cited "significant fiscal challenges" facing local governments because of the housing market collapse, financial market upset and recession.

Ooooh, this got Barney so very angry:

U.S. Representative Barney Frank gave ratings companies a month to fix ``ridiculous'' standards that they apply to local government debt, as his House committee opened a hearing today on how the firms evaluate municipal bonds.``I am going to say to the rating agencies and to the insurers: they have about a month to fix this,'' Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, told reporters in Washington yesterday. ``We're going to tell them they have to straighten it out.''

Somebody ought to tell this assclown - who is so deeply responsible for the torching of the American economy - why we need these ratings in the first place:

Municipalities are less creditworthy than they used to be -- a combination of profligate spending and vanishing revenue -- and lenders would be wise to approach them with a caution.

Barney needs the money. Barney can't allow the truth to interfere with his monetary collection. Barney demands that the bond rates up their ratings or change their system to give municipal bonds their own, "special" rating system.

He's already sponsored a House Resolution:

Municipal Bond Fairness Act - To ensure uniform and accurate credit rating of municipal bonds and provide for a review of the municipal bond insurance industry.

Coming up next: Custom government weather forecasts! ("No - that's not rain you're feeling, it's liquid sunshine!")

May God protect us from the likes of Barney Frank, and the simplistic evil of willful ignorance he so ably represents...