Why groups blame the Community Reinvestment Act as the cause for the present economic recession.

Why groups blame the Community Reinvestment Act as the cause for the present economic recession.
Since the economic downturn began in 2007, and especially in 2008, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has been thrust onto the public consciousness due to the search for answers of how the United States fell into a recession. Several conservative groups have used this opportunity to put the blame of the financial crisis on government policy. These groups point to government polices such as a highly accommodative monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, federal policies designed to expand home ownership, and the congressionally-granted duopoly status of housing GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While these groups’ explanation of how the housing bubble was created has some credence, the addition of the CRA into the list of factors that caused the recession is incorrect and misguided.
The explanation by the conservative groups for how the CRA created the mortgage market crisis is based on two points. The first is that the CRA forced banks to extend credit to low to moderate income communities and thus creating a dramatic rise in sub-prime lending. The second argument follows that these communities defaulted on their sub-prime mortgages causing them to foreclose on their houses creating the mortgage market crisis. The arguments by these groups are best summarized by the words of Republican Congressman Jeb Hensarling:
“Thus, mandates like CRA ended up becoming a significant contributor to the number of foreclosures that are occurring because they required lending institutions to abandon their traditional underwriting standards in favor of more subjective models to meet their government mandated CRA objectives.”