Washington, DC—Today, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), along with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to David Kappos, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as Michael Williams, President and CEO of Fannie Mae, seeking information concerning a patent issued to Fannie Mae regarding a residential Cap and Trade system.
On June 7, 2005, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Patent No. 6,904,336 for a “System and Method for Residential Emissions Trading.” The patent was assigned to the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and CO2e.com, LLC of New York. The patent lists former Fannie Mae Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Franklin D. Raines as the primary inventor. Former Fannie Mae executives Scott Lesmes and Robert Sahadi are also listed as inventors.
“I have serious questions about why Fannie Mae, back in 2005, was working on a Cap and Trade scheme,” said Rep. Chaffetz. “Why would they be spending their resources on something that is well outside of the scope of Fannie Mae’s charter? We want to see all the information relating to the patents issued to these ‘inventive’ former Fannie Mae executives?”
“Having ventured far beyond sub-prime lending policies, Fannie Mae appears to have served as a full-blown liberal think tank for crony-capitalist ideas,” said Rep. Issa. “While the crony-capitalist Democrats who ran Fannie Mae like Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson used these kinds of ideas to enrich themselves, it was the American taxpayers who were left holding the bag after they failed. It’s disturbing that Fannie Mae executives were positioning themselves in 2005 for financial gain from an Obama Administration cap-and-trade system, but given the huge amount of campaign contributions Fannie Mae poured over President Obama it should be no surprise.”
http://chaffetz.house.gov/Letter.pdf
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Thank you for your service. Of the things that we fail to understand about too much government is fundamental to human nature. As humans and in the rest of nature it is possible to function as a society but not all things are equal. The nature of life is that there are challenges with both good and bad consequences. The challenges are required for progress. There needs to be rewards for motivation. Without the motivation then effort decreases and there is no need to strive for excellence. If the system treats the janiter and the doctor equally then there will be no incentive to make the sacrifices that are needed. Nature shows us that we can't rely on it to take care of us. Government won't just meet all of our needs. This has failed in USSR and many of the more socialist countries are going bankrupt. The idea that we are guaranteed everything by government will have us standing around wondering why we forgot how to take care of ourselves. We are the system and there is no efficiency in government that is going to be competitive with other free market economies. We need to figure out why other countries are falling apart and make sure that we don't make the same mistakes. We know something is wrong but need direction because we don't understand what is happening. Glen Farkas, M.D
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