'Glenn Beck': GOP Lawmaker Wants Details on Fannie Mae's Cap-and-Trade Patents
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," May 17, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: I'm talking about "Crime Inc." now — a story we've been talking about involving a group of government insiders who stand to make money off of cap-and-trade in a big way if legislation passes.
One of the players, strangely, is this man: Franklin Raines. He was the former CEO of Fannie Mae. He left the company in 2004 after he knowingly inflated earnings by $9 billion. Why? So everybody could get their bonuses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Raines, when he was a CEO, he and a couple of other Fannie executives also did something very strange: Applied for patents on residential admissions trading programs.
Now, why would Fannie Mae and Franklin Raines care about cap-and-trade?
That's what my next guest wants to know. Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah sits on the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform. He joins me now from Salt Lake City.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jason, you and Representative Issa filed for records to be produced, I think it was on Friday. Thank you for standing for this. Can you tell me why would Fannie own cap-and-trade technology?
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, R-UTAH: What I do know is there are billions upon billions of dollars at play and why would they use those resources in a cap-and-trade scheme that they would personally benefit from and what sort of money is trading hands when Franklin Raines then assigns that patent to Fannie and Freddie.
It's just — this does not smell right. They have two patents out there. And we want to know about them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: OK. There's the Fannie technology. We couldn't file a Freedom of Information Act request.
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
BECK: We can't do it. And it's awfully — it's great for Fannie. Can you — can you explain why we couldn't file that Freedom of Information Act?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CHAFFETZ: Well, we've requested information, but because they are government-sponsored enterprise, the GSE, they fall outside the scope of a FOIA request, the Freedom of Information Act. And I think this is fundamentally wrong. In fact, you have Judicial Watch, one of the watchdog groups filing suit against Fannie and Freddie, wanting information about where all their campaign contributions went and what not.
The Obama administration has come back now and actually argued in court in the last 60 days or so and said, no, no, no, you do not have the right to that information because they're not a full-fledged government entity — even though we're on the hook for literally hundreds of billions of dollars.
BECK: Right.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CHAFFETZ: So, we're trying to get the information. But I see what the Barack Obama is arguing and I — and Judicial Watch hasn't been able to get that information —
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: Are you going to be able to get the information as congressmen? Can you get the information?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CHAFFETZ: I'm not that optimistic but if we need to change the law, we're going to write a law to change the law.
BECK: OK.
CHAFFETZ: But right now, as it stands, we're going to have a tough time.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: Here's the thing: This is a mortgage company. All they're supposed to do, that's their charter, to do mortgages.
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
BECK: They've got — they've got, I think, four patents out. They all are around cap-and-trade, but this is residential. When you think of cap-and-trade, you think, "Oh, you know, OK, so Exxon has to pay some more money for cap-and-trade." No, no, no — this is your individual house, correct?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CHAFFETZ: Yes. They even have a patent — there's another patent we found that actually puts a lock on your individual outlets — it's literally to have a pattern for this — to lock your individual outlet so that they can control the mechanism by which you lock that little outlet. It's unbelievable.
BECK: Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it. We'll talk again.
CHAFFETZ: Thanks, Glenn.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: America, do you remember when we talked about cap-and-trade? Do you remember when we talked about — what is that, that power thing that we talked about, they had a power — the smart grid. Yes.
Why would you need a lock on your outlet for your own home?.
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