A Fannie and Freddie Earmark : Chuck Schumer doesn't think they're losing enough money

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Taxpayers may look at the unlimited federal credit line now enjoyed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and see disaster. But New York Senator Chuck Schumer sees opportunity.

Yesterday he demanded that the two failed mortgage giants guarantee low rent for tenants in a Manhattan property they now own after the owner defaulted. As they say in Democratic Washington, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Recently we told you about the Treasury's Christmas Eve announcement that after chewing through $111 billion from taxpayers, Fan and Fred can now consume an unlimited amount of cash from the U.S. Treasury. The companies have been losing billions each quarter to serve President Obama's political goal of modifying troubled mortgages. They can lose still more by serving Mr. Schumer.

In truth, they already are. The New York lawmaker has pioneered the use of the Fannie and Freddie earmark, having successfully pressured Fannie to sell another property in the Bronx to an affordable housing group. But his appetite is growing for taxpayer cash to dole out to his constituents. Whereas the Bronx housing complex was worth a mere $29 million, Fan and Fred's interest in the mammoth Stuyvesant Town complex in Manhattan could run into the billions.

Friendly fascism.