(CNSNews.com) -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has been named "Porker of the Month" by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) because of his criticism of bonuses for AIG employees while Frank himself has supported bailouts for failing banks and lenders.The CAGW, a non-partisan government watchdog group, noted that Frank has said that AIG's bonuses only "rewarded failure." Yet Frank voted for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, a financial bailout program with no enforceable strings attached, said the CAGW, and he defended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while those lending institutions were in financial trouble.
The CAGW noted Frank's defense of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the years, "even when it became clear that executives at the two giant government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) had manipulated earnings statements and gifted themselves with huge bonuses based on the bogus numbers, misled regulators, and steered the companies into such shoddy condition that they posed a systemic risk to the entire financial system," said the CAGW statement.
In September 2003, Frank told The New York Times that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "are not facing any kind of financial crisis." Both Fannie and Freddie are now almost entirely owned by the government, and while Freddie Mac got $13.8 billion in bailout money last year, Fannie Mae is estimated to get $15.2 billion in 2009, according to the CAGW.
Also in 2003, Frank, in reference to the GSEs, said, "I want to roll the dice more in this situation towards subsidized housing."
"Even in this global capital of hot air, bait-and-switch politics, and double-talk, Chairman Frank deserves singular recognition," said CAGW President Tom Schatz. "It strains credulity to hear him rebuking anyone for rewarding failure after he helped create the disaster in the first place."
Tad DeHaven, a federal budget analyst with the Cato Institute, said that when it comes to issues involving government bailouts of financial titans, Frank has "negative credibility," so his claims of institutions rewarding failure should be questioned.
"I would call Congressman Frank getting reelected rewarding failure," DeHaven told CNSNews.com. "If everyone else responsible for this mess in the private sector has to take the fall, I don't understand why politicians are left out of the equation."
DeHaven suggested that Frank is only one of too many Capitol Hill legislators eager to push the blame onto Wall Street while quick to dodge taking any blame themselves.
"They love blaming the private sector," Edmunds said of lawmakers. "But to me, the private sector is barely private since you have this unholy relationship between these businesses and the government. That's not capitalism, that's crony capitalism."
The CAGW says that its "'Porker of the Month' is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers."