BOSTON (AP) Congressman Barney Frank says Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation's housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that's racially motivated.

The Massachusetts Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, says the GOP is appealing to its base by blaming the country's mortgage foreclosure problem on efforts to expand affordable housing through the Community Reinvestment Act.

Frank says that blame is misplaced because those loans are issued by regulated institutions. He says far more foreclosures were triggered by high-cost loans made by unregulated entities.

Frank is also dismissing charges the Democrats failed on their own or blocked Republican efforts to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage companies now taken over by the federal government.

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