Here we go again…
April 26, 2010Jon Brooks Comments OffWow surprise. Seems we have all 59 Democrats supporting a sprawling piece of reform legislation, and all 41 Republicans opposing it. And of course, those 41 votes are enough to maintain a filibuster. Sound familiar?
Democrats say the bill imposes new financial industry regulations necessary to prevent the kind of meltdown that nearly collapsed the global financial system in 2008. Republicans say the bill encourages a “too big to fail” mentality that requires government bailouts, an argument that many observers feel is, to put it charitably, malarkey. (Watch Paul Krugman, in hyperbolic mode, call it “possibly the most dishonest argument ever made in the history of politics.”)
With polls showing a big majority of Americans favoring more financial regulation, Democrats think the GOP won’t be able to hold fast on this one, and even many Republicans in Congress are predicting the bill’s eventual passage.
Here are some comments from New York Times and Washington Post readers.
According to figures released on Meet the Press, Sen. Dodd received over $6 million last year from the financial sector. He’s retiring this year – undoubtedly to a lucrative consulting job representing Wall Street interests. Depend on him and his well-funded Senate cronies in both parties to produce some overheated flimflam accomplishing nothing and leaving the bad actors, including the Fed and Goldman, at the top of the greed heap, the taxpayers holding the bag and the US government headed toward overt bankruptcy.
Not a word about auditing the Fed, overwhelmingly passed by the House, or investigating the central bank/Morgan/Goldman manipulation of the gold markets as recently heard by the Commodity Futures board, or anything about the phony gold-plated tungsten bars received last fall by the Chinese, apparent source: Fort Knox and the Fed. The Dodd Senate bill actually empowers the Fed even more than presently, and restricts the attempts at transparency in the House bill. That’s not going to be good for anybody except the financial elites and their politicians.
Nope, all these characters are going to try to take the money and run and cover their tracks with a lot of meaningless hot air. Any one of them up for reelection this had better get out in front on this with something meaningful, because the public on both the Right and the Left is wise to them at last.
——————————————————————————————————————–
What does herding cats and a united Congress have in common? They are near impossible to do. I put my bets on herding cats.
The so called big tent of the Democratic Party can’t do anything without watering bills down to their weakest component. The health care bill, helping the unemployed and the stimulus bill showed that. The “Blue Dogs” are just Republicans in disguise. And the Republicans? They know they have the Democrats on the ropes and they can continue down the road of obstructionism. Their hope, to have nothing come out of Congress through November, so they can say that the Democrats cannot run the country (page one from their 1994 playbook). Couple this with a President that has done a lousy job in uniting his party and forcing through his agenda. His “hands off” on health care is also a glaring example.
So, if an financial reform bill does emerge it will be similar to the health care bill. That is, it placates the special interests and the very companies that reform was suppose to target. And in the end, Wall Street will bring the economy down again before 2020.
——————————————————————————————————————–
We know many of the democrats leading this legislative effort took plenty of money from the financial industry. Our own President took $1 million from Goldman. I would like CSPAN on during deliberations and a full disclosure singling out who got what from whom and which lobbyists are out in the hallways passing out information sheets and leaning on legislators.
This whole thing smells like low tide already and the “blame republicans” rally call is old before it gets going. Are Pelosi/Reid even capable of sincere bi-partisan efforts? I am not sure. I do hope they remember their Congress has an approval rating around 14% and that means the public has seen their dog and pony show before and is not pleased.
In short, let’s keep this clean, open and non partisan. America deserves better.
——————————————————————————————————————–
There are multiple problems with (the surveyshowing support from the bill) that pretty much make it meaningless. First of all, I would guess that roughly 5% or so of the American public understands what a derivative is and so has no idea whether they should be more highly regulated or not. Second, the question about whom you trust is misleading in the extreme. The choice should not be between Obama and the Republicans because Obama doesn’t write and pass legislation (yet). The choice should have been between the republicans and the democrats. Finally, yet again we are asking the American people what they support when they have no idea what the legislation will actually contain. All this survey indicates is that the American public is pissed off at large financial institutions and want something done. Beyond that, this survey has absolutely no legitimate value.
——————————————————————————————————————–
The Senate needs to pass the toughest regulations it can on the financial markets and the instruments that allowed the CEOs of Wall Street to plunder the investments and retirement savings of average Americans. Then the Federal government needs to rid itself of the Bush/Cheney anti-regulation appointees immediately and prosecute the guilty individuals, particularly the CEOs at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, etc. who defrauded individual investors, pension funds and municipalities. We should not rest until all of the guilty parties are behind bars.
——————————————————————————————————————–
As a very crude rule-of-thumb we could say if Wall Street doesn’t want it, it should be made law.
Wall Street is a shell-game, and “derivatives,” as seen from its very name, is a major component of a shell game – in this case the “value” of what the buyer is purchasing is “derived” from something else, something hidden away. The perfect con. And criminals on Wall Street have made billions doing this.
All financial dealings should have total transparency and then the supposed theory underlying market capitalism should work; however the fundamental basis of Wall Street is total obfuscation, and that is where they make their (obscene) money.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Democrats unite? FINALLY. Did they just now realize that THEY won the election? That they HAVE 59 votes. That we sent them to Washington to ACT. If President Roosevelt and the Congress had performed as this Congress has, we would STILL be in the First Great Depression.
And how about criminal charges, not civil, against these Master of the Universe who have brought us (we are STILL there) to the brink of the abyss? Let them pay their lawyers and fines for their dishonest actions with their fat and undeserved bonuses!
——————————————————————————————————————–
This is the issue that could deny the Republicans and gains this election. The anti-incumbant mood that they were hoping to ride could very quickly be trumped by the much deeper hatred for recidivist bankers and their klepotocratic Republican crony politicians.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Why don’t I trust the Democrats with trying to “rush” through a bill. They sure don’t seem to have given enough thought to the stimulus, the health care bill and the proposed energy bill. All of them work around a political agenda, not solving problems.
——————————————————————————————————————–
The Republicans are committing political suicide by letting themselves by exposed for what they really are: water boys for the banking industry and an enemy of the Common Man and Woman. I am so enjoying this.
——————————————————————————————————————–
It’s laughable to read all the mindless comments here from Obama’s gang of leftist zombies. Just look around you. The vast majority of people living in the canyons of vast wealth on the upper east and west sides, along with the Hamptons and other retreats for the wealthy are died in the wool Democrats. And who infests the upper east and west sides, who vote almost exclusively for and contribute millions to Democrats…people in the financial, entertainment, and artistic communities…So suddenly it’s the Republicans who are wedded to the financial industry? Are you people willfully ignorant or just uninformed robots who repeat verbatum whatever Obama reads from his teleprompter?
Try reading the Wall Street Journal for financial info. Today we learn that Obama’s close friend and supporter Warren Buffet is leaning on Democrats in the Senate to put in a sweetheart exclusion for him so he doesn’t have to have the same reserves against derivities as the peasants who aren’t in bed with Obama. Recall also, is you have any vestige of honesty, that notorious financier and predatory short seller George Soros is the Democratic Party and Obama’s largest financial supporter, contributing tens of millions. Then there’s big Democratic supporter Bernie Maddoff and most all of the Golman Sachs crowd and other financial tycoons…So it’s the Republicans fault? So wanting to actually read the bill and not passing by coctail hour is somehow wanting to kill financial reform? Only the pathetically stupid and/or uninformed can construct such a Rube Goldbergian argument.
——————————————————————————————————————–
It only took 9 years for the economy to fall after Glass- Steagal was repealed under a democrat administration. The commodities modernation act- another gift form teh Clinton admin is what allowed Goldman’s derivitives games now exposed. Arguing for or against what Republicans or Democrats want is just a diversion, both parties are puppets to wall street and the banksters. Just like the health care bill, both parties are puppets to the health insurance industries, the final bill will be so watered down that it will be a joke.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Where’s the part in this bill where anyone who takes down the entire financial system has to live on the street in a box over a steam vent?
