Courtesy of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
The Republicans are having difficulty determining how they’re going to continue making love to Wall Street.
Category: Legislation
So Predictable
Because Larry Summers is too arrogant to realize that he will never be Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and because Larry Summers has Barack Obama’s ear,* the White House has all but threatened a veto if the finance reform bill passes with an amendment to audit the Federal Reserve:
Right now Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is trying to round up 60 or more votes to overcome a likely filibuster and include an “audit the Fed” provision in the Senate’s bill. There are just a few small obstacles: the White House, major financial institutions, and the Fed itself. Their resistance is fierce–but the measure is so popular that killing it will be difficult for them and that, in their eyes, threatens to put a grenade at the center of efforts to to tighten the rules on Wall Street.
The pushback is reminiscent, in a way, of the executive branch’s institutional opposition to oversight of the nation’s intelligence agencies and operations. The Fed has always been shrouded in secrecy, and its leaders (in both the private and public sector) continue to insist on keeping their activities opaque, in order, they say, to protect complicated monetary policy from the political process.
……
It’s likely, in fact, that the Obama administration will be under intense pressure to veto the entire financial reform bill if “audit the fed” survives.
This is nuts. I know that Ben Bernanke will be upset, but to the degree that any voter cares about this, they support this idea, and the audit specifically exempts the inflation fighting functions of the Fed, where independence really matters.
It’s pretty clear that the Fed bent (and likely broke) its own rules, and possibly the law, and we need to know how they handled this, and how they screwed this up in the first place, before we make any decisions on what authority they might hold.
*And Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner’s testicles.
The Republicans Cave on Finance
The Senate has agreed to start a debate on the financial reform package.
What the Republicans were angling for was a pre-approved package, with back room Ben Nelson(DINO-NE)-type deals cut in secret, so that they would get what they wanted without their finger prints on the deals.
Please sir, can I have some more?
Well, now it looks as if the bill will be in flux on the floor, which means that the sellouts will have to be public, as will voting in opposition to some of the amendments to strengthen the bill.
Harry Reid has hung tough, and the Democrats have been effective in painting Republican obstructionism for what it is.
This needs to be the rule, not the exception.
Good Politics, Good Policy
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Even the right-wing Belo Corporation journalism cancer known as the Dallas Morning News
And the Mooney Times
Media Matters has a large selection of newspaper front pages, and it looks like Mitch McConnell’s ploy to kill financial reform is not playing in Peoria.
The lede is all about the filibuster, and how the ‘Phants are doing their best to kill and slow-walk the process, even in reliably right wing newspapers.
Here’s hoping that the Dems notice, and double down on making the Republicans do this again, and again, and again, and again.
Keep up the good work.
Do not compromise on financial reform, you already have, make them crawl to you, and scatter some broken glass in their path.
Failing by Design
So, after releasing an ambitious plan to reign in the exotic insurance-like financial instruments known as swaps, Blanche Lincoln is saying that she thinks that the proposal will not survive the Senate:
Senator Blanche Lincoln said she isn’t sure her plan to make banks wall off their swaps-trading desks has enough support to become part of financial-regulatory overhaul, while calling the provision effective change.
……
“I don’t know if I have the votes” for the provision, Lincoln said today. When the measure comes to the floor for debate, senators could vote to remove her plan, Lincoln said.
Let’s be clear, Senators don’t say things like this about proposals of theirs that they want to pass, they say it about proposals of theirs that they want someone else to kill.
Lincoln is trying to present herself as the liberals’ great white hope in the primary, but it’s just a pose, which is why the US Chamber of Commerce is doing a TV ad blitz for her.
Do not be deceived: She is owned by Walmart, the big banks, the health insurers, and the rest of those pig felching rat bastards.
Buck Fen …… (Nelson, that is)
So, the Senate attempted to begin debate on the financial reform package, and the vote failed by 57-41, with Ben Nelson (DINO-NE) voting with the ‘Phants.
Reid voted “no” as well, but included a motion to reconsider, which is a parliamentary trick to get a do-over.
Still, the most effective thing that the Dems could do right now is to take action against Ben Nelson.
If they start taking real actions against recalcitrant members of their own caucus, it makes it that much easier for them to deal with the Republicans, because they won’t get knifed by the Liebercrats.
Someone Sent Harry Reid a Clue
Unlike with healthcare, where he sat by idly while he allowed Ben Nelson (DINO-NE) to confab with 3 Republicans in the hopes of making the bill bipartisan, this time Harry Reid has said that, “The games of stalling are over.
Basically, he is saying that if Republicans want a deal, they had better talk now, and if not, they will filibuster financial reform, and the ads will go up, the ugly ones in black and white with the sinister music and the gravely voided announcer, in the states of the ‘Phants who are up for reelection in 2010.
I only wish that he had slapped down Nelson about this on healthcare. It would have made for a much better bill.
Arizona Immigration Law Signed
So, it is now a crime in Arizona to drive while brown, the governor signed the bill.
I would note that while Barack Obama condemned the law, he also made it possible by appointing Janet Napolitano as head of the DHS, because in Arizona, there is no Lt. Governor so Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer became governor.
So much for outreach to Hispanics by the GOP.
I Told You So…
Remember when I said that Blanche Lincoln’s strong proposals on derivatives reform were, just for show?
I said the following:
I’m with David Dayen, this all happened within days of her primary challenger, Bill Halter (Reminder, he’s on My Act Blue Page) releasing ads saying that she was too close to the banking industry.
Everyone on Capitol hill know that her proposals will never go beyond a press release, and that behind the scenes, she will continue to do the big banks’ bidding.
This is just electoral politics, and a full court press from her Congressional Colleagues and the White House.
And sure as the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, it’s happening.
Before the Republicans even got into the room, Democrats are weakening her proposals, with Gillibrand, Casey, and Stabenow taking point.
It’s what Glen Greenwald calls, “Villain Rotation“.
Basically, when an incumbent needs an electoral boost, they come out with a populist proposal, and then it gets killed by someone else, and when that person needs an electoral boost, they change places.
On Arizona’s Immigration Law
I tend to be a hard-ass on immigration. I tend to refer to them as “illegal,” not “undocumented,” and I favor strict penalties against those who negligently (the current standard is knowingly) employ illegal aliens/
I also understand the reality of the situation, that about ⅓ of illegals in the US entered illegally and overstayed their visas, which means that they are not the stereotypical Hispanic, and that much of the immigration fraud in the US occurs in things like the H1B and L1A visas, who are overwhelmingly not Hispanic, where a significant proportion of the visas are granted in violation of the regulations.
That being said, Arizona’s new immigration law sucks. (Google news link)
Basically, it’s an excuse for police officers to stop, detain, and arrest people for “driving while Hispanic.”
It’s standard Republican populist bigotry and racism.
Signs of the Apocalypse
Starts at 2:05
On Morning Joe, Mark Halperin, a long time hack best known for the phrase, “Matt Drudge rules our world,” feels compelled to call it for what it is when he says, “They are willfully misreading the bill or they are engaged in a cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving something.” (emphasis mine)
Except for the fact that he should have said and not or, he is telling the truth, and when Mark Halperin feels compelled to call bullsh%$, you know that Republican spin has crossed some sort of “Shoe Event Horizon” where the normal punditocracy simply ceases to function.
The first part of the video is Austan Goolsbee ably defending the program (full disclosure, I made a post that he objected to in the comments, see here, and I posted his response here),* but Joe turns to Halperin for a “fair and balanced appraisal, and Halperin calls them full of it too.
H/t Steve Benen.
*I don’t have a problem with his objecting, my family calls me full of it all the time, it sticks in my head because I was stunned that he read my little old blog in his capacity as an economic advisor to the Obama campaign.
We See the Beginnings of Competence
About bloody time!So, after the disastrous negotiations on healthcare with the Republicans, Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions™ begin to get a clue.
On financial reform, Organizing for America, the Obama campaign political arm, is running ads using Republican opposition to financial reform to Wall Street as a club to beat them with.
Certainly, this is better than their strategy on healthcare reform, which was to let Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sandbag them by engaging in extensive negotiations when she had not the slightest intention of voting for cloture.
H/t FT Alphaville.
OK, Extended Unemployment is Finally on its Way to Obama’s Desk
They had to break 2 filibusters, but the bill is now on its way to President Obama for his signature.
The bill also included COBRA subsidies, a waiver of Medicare reimbursement cuts, and the national flood insurance program.
Hopefully, this means that I will be able to apply for extended benefits soon.
Lincoln Follows the Poll Numbers, Goes Hard on Banks
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), as head of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has significant input on derivatives legislation, because one of the oldest of the derivatives are commodity futures, things like pork belly futures, which is why it manages the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The word has been that Lincoln would be almost as much of a road block ad the Republicans on meaningful reform, seeing as how her record is one of doing the bidding of insurance companies and bank.
It turns out that the word is wrong. Lincoln is requiring that derivatives trading be walled off from banking, as well as requiring the trades be done on open exchanges:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and their biggest rivals would be forced to wall off derivatives trading operations from their commercial banks under a measure to be introduced by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, a congressional aide said.
Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, will propose a “no-bailout provision” as part of an overhaul of derivatives regulation she plans to unveil today, according to the aide, who declined to be identified because the plan isn’t public. The measure aims to ensure banks don’t endanger depositors’ money with risky trading of over-the-counter derivatives, the aide said.
…………
Lincoln’s provision would bar swaps dealers from taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s discount lending window, emergency liquidity functions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s deposit guarantee. “It eliminates all of the advantages with the affiliation with an insured depository institution, which are profound,” said Karen Petrou, managing partner of Washington-based research firm Federal Financial Analytics Inc.
…………
It would also increase protections for clients by requiring swaps dealers to treat them as a fiduciary — obligating them to put customers’ interests ahead of the company’s, the aide said.
The measure requires most over-the-counter derivatives to be traded on exchanges or through clearinghouses. Companies that use swaps to hedge the cost of materials or other non-investment purposes would be exempted from the requirements, the aide said. Like the Volcker rule, which would ban commercial banks from proprietary trading, the wall-off provision would separate derivatives trading from traditional banking activities such as taking deposits and making loans.
Let’s be clear, this is very tough stuff, at least by the standards of the Congress, particularly the Senate.
She actually lambasted the administration for being too soft on banks:
“Proposals that I have seen from the administration have not gone far enough to prevent bailouts of ‘too big to fail institutions’ and could contain loopholes,” Lincoln said. “If we pass reform, it needs to be real reform. My proposal will go further than any other congressional or administration proposal to prevent future bailouts.”
I’m with David Dayen, this all happened within days of her primary challenger, Bill Halter (Reminder, he’s on My Act Blue Page) releasing ads saying that she was too close to the banking industry.
Everyone on Capitol hill know that her proposals will never go beyond a press release, and that behind the scenes, she will continue to do the big banks’ bidding.
This is just electoral politics, and a full court press from her Congressional Colleagues and the White House.
Thank God!!!!!!
The Dems managed to get 4 ‘Phants to support cloture on extended unemployment benefits, Scott Brown (MA), Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (ME), and George Voinovich (OH).
I don’t know which 5 Dems were not voting, but my guess is that Byrd, whose health is shaky is one of them.
I should start getting unemployment checks again soon.
Barney Frank Goes Nuclear on Former Staffer
And let me note that the staffer, Peter Roberson, deserves it.
Basically, this guy took lead on writing regulations on derivatives, and then he started shopping himself to hedge funds, and this Really pissed off Barney Frank:
But in late January, after learning that Roberson was interviewing for a position with ICE, Frank asked him to leave his post, removed him from the payroll, de-activated his email account and took his Blackberry, keys and identification credentials, according to both Frank and Frank’s spokesman.
And if that weren’t enough:
Frank said there is a rule which bans staffers who leave for industry positions from interacting with committee members for one year, but he doesn’t think this rule goes far enough.
Frank said Thursday he has instructed staff “to have no contact whatsoever with Mr. Roberson on any matters involving financial regulation for as long as I am in charge of that committee staff.”
(emphasis mine)
I will note that Frank did this a year ago with another former aid, where he forbade contact with Goldman Sachs lobbyist, and former committee staffer, Michael Paese, from contacting the committee while they were working on reform legislation, but that was only while the bill was being drawn up.
I am not sure if this has happened because Roberson’s behavior was particularly egregious, or if it was because the bleeding in staff was becoming excessive, but this is a much needed shot across the bow of the revolving door in the US Congress.
In either case, it’s pretty clear that Roberson is now radioactive, and that his market value as a peddler of access has been much diminished.
Frank’s official statement after break:
Statement of Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney FrankWashington, DC – House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) today made the following statement about stories related to a recent staff departure from the House Financial Services Committee:“Several people have expressed criticism of the move by Peter Roberson from the staff of the Financial Services Committee to ICE, after he worked on the legislation relevant to derivatives. I completely agree with that criticism. When Mr. Roberson was hired, it never occurred to me that he would jump so quickly from the Committee staff to an industry that was being affected by the Committee’s legislation. When he called me to tell me that he was in conversations with them, I told him that I was disappointed and that I insisted that he take no further action as a member of the Committee staff. I then called the Staff Director and instructed her to remove him from the payroll and provide him only such compensation as is already owed.
“Stories about this correctly noted that there is a one year ban on his interaction with members of the Committee staff, but I do not think that is adequate. I am therefore instructing the staff of the Financial Services Committee to have no contact whatsoever with Mr. Roberson on any matters involving financial regulation for as long as I am in charge of that Committee staff. Fortunately, examples of staff members doing what Mr. Roberson has done are rare, but even one example is far too much and that is why I wanted to make clear I share the unhappiness of people at this, and my intention to prohibit any contact between him and members of the staff for as long as I have any control over the matter.”
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Obama Says, “Drill, Baby, Drill”
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The Audacity of D’oh!
Once again, Barack Obama decides to cock-punch the base, and he announces a massive expansion of offshore drilling that largely echos those of George W. Bush, with the protection of Bristol Bay being the only major change.
He did this with nuclear power a 1½ months ago, so I guess that this is not a surprise, particularly given his lip service to the fraud that is “clean coal.”
It appears that part of his goal is to get some Republican support for his climate change bill, but, as was shown in healthcare reform, the Republicans are not good faith actors.
Better to use the recent EPA declaration about C02 emissions as a harmful emissions as a club, and keep this in your back pocket, because giving away the store upfront results in really bad policy.
Just Bloody Marvelous
It appears Orrin Hatch, who voted against the healthcare bill, and is claiming that the healthcare bill is unconstitutional, still managed to insert ¼ billion in funding for abstinence only education.
Great.
These programs don’t work, and in fact the only effect appears to be encourage higher risk behavior, like anal sex, but the Republicans have gotta pay off a constituency, and for some reason, the Dems have let them.
F%$# that.
Deep Though
Like School House Rock, On Acid
You know, if I didn’t share this with you, I’d be most negligent in my duties.
What can I say? It’s a big f%$#ing joke,
Reconciliation Sidecar Is Approved
The House of Representatives just approved the minor changes to reconciliation side car.
Note that, once again, the public option got left on the sidelines.
The Senate said that they had more than 50 votes for it, and the House is supposed to have more than 217 for it, and with the tweak, it could have been put in, but it wasn’t.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Barack Obama agreed to kill the public option very early in this process:
For months I’ve been reporting in The Huffington Post that President Obama made a backroom deal last summer with the for-profit hospital lobby that he would make sure there would be no national public option in the final health reform legislation. (See here, here and here). I’ve been increasingly frustrated that except for an initial story last August in the New York Times, no major media outlet has picked up this important story and investigated further.
John Walker at FDL notes the shifting reasons for killing the public option, and draws what I think is the accurate explanation:
It is foolish to believe that a President, Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House with historically large majorities couldn’t get a public option–which roughly 65% of the country supported–if they really wanted one. Clearly, if they all really wanted to include a public option, they could have done it using reconciliation. To accept their many different excuses of powerlessness requires one to completely suspend reality.
Occam’s razor teaches us the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Here, the simplest explanation is that, months ago, Obama promised to kill the public option as part of a secret deal with the for-profit hospital lobby, and that for months he lied to the American people about supporting the public option while working behind the scenes to stop it.
So, when exactly does that changing the way Washington works thing start again?
(emphasis mine)
Indeed.