Jon Kyl and Chris Dodd on Late Edition talking about the housing crisis. Transcript from CNN: BLITZER: A lot of people, Senator Kyl in Arizona, in the housing market out there, they’re suffering big-time right now. How much of the blame, and I know you’re a blunt guy, how much of the blame does the Bush administration deserve for allowing this kind of situation to deteriorate, as it has? KYL: Virtually none. BLITZER: Why? KYL: We’ve been predicting for years that this problem would come along. When I was chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, we wrote papers on it. BLITZER: But isn’t the federal government responsible for making sure this kind of situation doesn’t happen? KYL: The problem is, there is very little regulatory authority. That’s why this legislation that Senator Dodd has been working on, the one good feature of it is additional regulation. But we should have had that regulation four years ago. The other problem, here, is that much of the bailout here is for the people holding bad loans, not the homeowners. It’s for the speculators, the investors. I know in the oil crisis, everybody’s concerned about the speculators driving up the price. What do you think happened in the housing market? BLITZER: Senator Dodd, go ahead and respond. DODD: No, no, no. Very specifically, Jon, we absolutely seclude speculators from having any benefit all the under the act. That’s very clear in the law. Of course, this is a highly regulated industry, Jon. This isn’t like hedge …
