Gingrich Made $1.6 Million "Advising" Freddie Mac

Newt Gingrich has quickly become a front runner in the presidential race. One of the key advantages to his candidacy? Well, all of his scandals are already public.

Or so everyone thought.

Now, Gingrich is feeling the heat over some tall tales he told at the most recent Republican debate. Being forced to defend his time as a consultant for the big mortgage group Freddie Mac, Gingrich downplayed the relationship, calling himself a “historian.” He also alleged that he was the Cassandra in the agency, telling them about the likely housing bubble destined to pop, and urging them to address the issue before it became a crisis.

But that’s not really what he was doing at all. “In fact, his role was, in part, to protect the mortgage giants from more regulation by the Republican-controlled House.”

Also a bit of a fib? How much money Gingrich made in exchange for his consulting. Gingrich claimed he made about $300,000 for his one year of work. Freddie Mac says that it was actually about $1.6 million dollars.

Should a politician who can’t tell the difference between a few hundred thousand dollars and over one and a half million be in charge of one of the biggest budgets in the world. And how do conservatives feel realizing that not only was Gingrich working for a federal program that they hate, but earning huge taxpayer dollars doing it?

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Margaret P.

8:53AM PST on Jan 24, 2012

Got this one a little screwed up there on facts.
Gingrich's consulting firm made the money and Newt warned Fannie Mae that this was probably going to happen. The consulting firm gave them the scenario based on what they asked for. Do you really think Barney Frank and others wanted the truth while they were skimming off the top?

send a green star

Cathy N.

2:07AM PST on Nov 28, 2011

~I think any one of us could do a better job than Newt!!~He certainly isn't deserving of that huge amount of money!~He's crooked like many others in Washington!!!~

KS G.

12:15AM PST on Nov 20, 2011

Thanks for the article.

June H.

4:54PM PST on Nov 18, 2011

Diane O.
You're right about McCain foreseeing the housing crisis. However, in 2005 he presented the problem to the Bush Administration, who also did nothing.

AND the bill is not the GSH Reform Bill, it is the GSE.....Government sponsored entities. Yes, Obama did not act, but neither did Bush.

It certainly would not have fixed the problem at that time anyway. The housing scam in which Fannie Mae employees manipulated the books so their CEO's would receive large bonuses, had been going on for years. Then there was the fact that they were creating loans and giving them out like candy to those who could not afford them, creating an unnatural housing bubble. It all started during the George Jr. administration. He passed on fixing the problem, because like Obama, he also received large chunks of money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The crisis did not start until the Bush administration. I have read a lot about this. If you can show me documentation, that can be verified, I will concede. So maybe, your precious Bush should have Stopped, Dropped, and Rolled. Afterall, he was willing to let it slide for a little green.

Diane O.

3:53PM PST on Nov 18, 2011

That bill, the GSH Reform bill, had it passed in the congress, would've stopped the momentum. Yes, we still would've had residual and serious issues but think about it...the democrats said, "No, the economy is fine." Think now how important that bill was to "stop, drop and roll" to address that problem. Perhaps, at best, we would've had to deal with "half" the problems we have today. Obama went on and on with realigning mortgages, something the government never should've been involved in...and Obama single handedly retarded our ability to recover on its own. Historically, recessions have been real estate driven and real estate corrected....because there are far more Americans with excellent credit and savings who would've stepped in to buy up rental property or second homes and that right then and there would've stopped the declining home values. Obama didn't have a clue to what he was doing. Tampering with the natural recovery of the real estate market was the absolute wrong move as we are witnessing today. One term president, my friends.

3:47PM PST on Nov 18, 2011

PatrickF, once again you present a question extremely broad and difficult to respond to based on being "out there." What you simply cannot deny is John McCain's GSH Reform bill presented to an all democratic congress and they denied the implications...the truth if you will because they were not able to follow the trouble subprime mortgages and their impact on our economy. Whether you want to admit it or not is yours...but the truth is.....John McCain, a republican saw the bubble and saw the devastation and Barney and Chris had no clue...and told the Congress .... we aren't in trouble...the republicans are nuts (my words).

Think about it.

Patrick F.

3:40PM PST on Nov 18, 2011

DO You are completely insane. Doesn't matter what happens, you put ALL Repubs on a pedestal and blame even Democrats who haven't held office for decades for GWB's mess. Geez, Diane, maybe GWB's screw ups were FDR's fault too, eh?

2:59PM PST on Nov 18, 2011

We had a situation at that time that was difficult to read. The only person who read it correctly was John McCain who put forth his GSH Reform bill to immediately regulate Fannie and Freddie. You'll recall that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd went before Congress and stated that the economy was fine...the real estate market was fine...and that there was no need to regulate Fannie and Freddie...Barney was in charge in how much money was appropriated to Fannie and Freddie to guarantee loans...and even he didn't see what was happening and obviously was unwilling to consider the fact that subprime loans were going to bring our economy to a standstill. Had McCain's bill passed...we wouldn't be spending this much time on our government subsidized independent companies. It all started with Jimmy Carter enhanced by Bill Clinton and he went out of control on George W. Bush's "watch." Damage control was headed by John McCain voted down by an all democratic congress...and they were wrong.

11:48AM PST on Nov 18, 2011

This fact alone should make him ineligible to run for POTUS

Donald K.

9:40AM PST on Nov 18, 2011

And Americans can not understand what is wrong with our system, when someone like Gingrich gets paid a large amount of money and produces such poor results.