GOP Budget Calls for End to GSEs, Dodd-Frank

The ""House Budget Committee"":http://budget.house.gov/ unveiled a budget plan for the next fiscal year that proposes raising guarantee fees for the GSEs and dismantling the Dodd-Frank Act.

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Committee chair Rep. ""Paul Ryan"":http://paulryan.house.gov/ (R-Wisconsin) billed the so-called _Path to Prosperity_ as a measure that will slash $6.2 trillion in government expenditures over the next decade and draw down the deficit by more than $4.4 trillion in contrast with President ""Barack Obama's"":http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama budget.

""Fannie Mae"":http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/index.html and ""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com/ came into play for the committee, which criticized years of reliance on the ""duopoly"" and called for their gradual dissolution without offering many specifics.

House Republicans proposed raising guarantee fees, downsizing portfolios for the GSEs, and eventually leaving housing finance to only the Federal Housing Administration.

The Dodd-Frank Act likewise drew attention in the proposal, with committee members denouncing it for a role that purportedly ""expands and centralizes power in Washington.""

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As one example, the proposal cited a Congressional Budget Office estimate that said an expanded role for the FDIC, as provided for by Dodd-Frank, would lead to additional expenses for taxpayers in the way of $26 billion for the creditors of systemically important institutions, should their finances go awry.

""This budget would end the regime now enshrined into law that paves the way for future bailouts,"" it said.

The proposal also said that debt in America could exacerbate any windfall from Treasury yields, against which lenders benchmark interest rates for mortgage loans. Mortgage rates have remained at or near record lows for the past several months as investors overseas juggle with a debt in crisis in Europe.

Estimates in the proposal held that an increase by as much as 1 percentage point could drive up interest rates for households by some $400 over the next year. Projections said that resulting interest costs could ""easily exceed"" $1,000 per year, inviting economic ruin as consumers withhold at the registers.

Joining other Republican lawmakers at a conference Tuesday, Paul pledged to work with the reconciliation process in Congress and ""bring reconciliation back to what it was meant to do, which is bring deficits and spending under control.""

The congressman ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô a vocal critic of the Obama administration and rising leader in the Republican Party ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô leveled accusations that the president's policies will lead the country to a ""path of decline.""

White House spokesperson Dan Pfeiffer responded in kind by calling the economic plan one that ""draws on the same wrong-headed theory that led to the worst recession of our lifetimes and contributed to the erosion of middle-class security over the last decade.""