[xoxoxoBruce]

Some nuggets from the bill's guts:
McCain had no part in constructing this bill, it was created by Chuck Hagel, Elizabeth Dole and John Sununu. McCain tacked his name on at the last minute as a co-sponsor.

This bill would have actually replaced the existing Dept. of Housing and Urban Development with the "Federal Housing Enterprize Regulatory Agency", which would be appointed directly by President Bush, which would actually remove any semblance of independent, nonpoliticized action that the HUD had left, and created a "Mortgage Czar". This guy would have a 6 year term, cancellable of course at the pleasure of the President.

This bill would not have solved the issue of "bundling", all it would have done is make it more difficult for someone to get a mortgage. Subprime or not, the Mortgage Czar would have unlimited authority to define "unacceptable risk".
Several statutes are also "worse than the disease".

Contrary to what McCain is saying, it was not voted down "by the Democrats", it never made it out of its senate committee, the "Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs" ordered the bill to be reported with an amendment, but were generally favorable to the bill. These amendments (to the "worse than the disease" aspects) were never amended and the bill died.

Oh and before you ask, in 2005 (when this bill was put before the committee) not only was the Senate a Republican majority but so was the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and it was chaired by Richard Shelby (R-AL).

One thing I forgot to mention as well.
This bill would have also actually deregulated reporting on the SECURITIES, which is what caused the housing market to actually implode (the sale of bundled securities to market bonds).

This, if anything would have actually made the subprime mortgage crisis worse.

LINK