From USA Today
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, slammed Republicans today for characterizing Democrats’ attempts to regulate Wall Street as a bank bailout.
He also threatened to break off talks with the GOP on the bill if they continue what he described as a campaign to spread “falsehoods” that come “straight from the Wall Street special interest playbook.”
Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking panel, today criticized Republicans for calling his financial legislation a bank bailout. He talks about the bill in this March file photo.
Dodd’s angry speech on the Senate floor came a day after Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, described the bill as allowing “endless taxpayer-funded bailouts.”
It’s also an argument that House Republican leaders made in talking points they distributed today in advance of a White House meeting on the legislation with President Obama.
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Obama dares GOP to fight Wall St. bill
Politico
For weeks, the White House strategy on financial regulatory reform remained an open question: Would President Barack Obama water down his bill just to get something passed — the way he did on health care?
A Palinesque “Hell no!” was the answer coming from the White House on Wednesday as the president, his senior aides and his allies on Capitol Hill issued an ultimatum to Republicans fighting Democrats’ plans to overhaul financial oversight.
“For the president, you have to be willing to accept a strong bill,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, after Obama emerged from a contentious meeting with GOP congressional leaders.
“If the effort to get this close is simply to take steps to weaken that legislation, that’s not what the president is interested in.”
Democrats are so emboldened that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is prepared to bring the Banking Committee bill to the floor with no major concessions to Republicans and essentially dare them to vote against the measure, senior leadership aides said.
At a time when Wall Street is as reviled as government, Democrats are willing to gamble that at least one Republican — and maybe as many as a half-dozen — will break ranks. At the same time, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is betting he can hold his caucus together to deny Democrats even a single vote.
“It’s been two and a half years since this crisis started, more than a year since we first laid out a comprehensive set of reforms,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said during a rare appearance at the White House daily briefing alongside Gibbs.
“I think we know what we need to know. … It’s just time to decide and time to move,” he added.
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From Rush Limbaugh
Regime Runs Against Free Market, Seeks Horrific Regulatory Powers
Obama and his regime were soon to revive blaming Wall Street for all of our economic ills as a means of advancing
support for a financial regulatory reform bill that would give him unilateral power to shut down or fire any of the board of directors or executive officers of any financial institution he wanted, based on any arbitrary feeling he had that they posed a threat.
They’re going to ramp up and they’re going to start running against Wall Street, as they push for this legislation. We mentioned last week that Chris Van Hollen, running the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, said (paraphrased), “Yeah, we’re going to run against Reagan. We’re going to run, we’re going to say we run for seats in November. We’re going to say, ‘We cannot continue these policies of the past.'”
If the financial regulation bill that passed the House last year becomes law, President Obama and his Treasury Secretary will acquire the right to take over any financial institution they wish to, provided that, in their sole opinion, it is both “too big to fail” and on the brink of insolvency. The House bill provides for no judicial review and does not require any objective evidence of imminent failure to trigger the takeover provisions.” It just allows the president and Geithner to take over any financial institution they want even if they have to make up some threat that it’s about to become insolvent. They can fire the board of directors, they can fire management (snapping fingers) Like that, folks! Just like that.
If they get all this stuff done, one of these days a Republican is going to be elected president and is going to have all these powers at his disposal and that’s what the Drive-Bys will call him a dictator. That’s when the Drive-Bys will say that we have a dictatorship. “Once the government takes over such a company, it will acquire the right to replace the entire board of directors, fire the management of the company, wipe out stockholder equity and even sell off divisions of the company. Essentially, this bill permits the government to launch an unfriendly takeover of any financial institution it wishes without risk and with no poison pill or other counter-measures possible. This legislation, essentially, confers on the federal government police powers that, under our system, are the exclusive preserve of state and local government.
“The blank check the bill gives the Feds to take over any financial institution is really more of an exercise of eminent domain than it is an extension of traditional federal regulatory power.” There’s no other way to describe this. This is fascism. This is the government taking over companies. The companies will continue to be run like GM and Chrysler are by so-called private citizens, but they’re owned by the government. That’s not fascism. Command-and-control is what it is. Fascism was privately-owned, government-run. This is government’s going to own it all! Any financial institution it wants it can just take over
Already, there is considerable evidence … that Goldman profited handsomely from the decision of its former CEO — Bush’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — to allow Lehman Brothers to fail. Now that the Treasury secretary will have the takeover power, might it not be used as irresponsibly and with as many bad consequences as Paulson used his power in the Lehman crisis? While the focus on the regulatory bill has been on the consumer protection provisions, which I tend to support, there has been far less scrutiny on these horrific expansions of federal power,” and they are horrific. Dick Morris concludes: “Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez could only dream of this power.” We are a nation hanging by a thread here, folks — and this has passed the House. Financial regulatory reform has passed Pelosi’s House.
None of this that Dick Morris says is untrue. Obama and Geithner can take over any company they want for any reason under the guise that they are protecting it from going belly up or because its board of directors is corrupt or because the management’s making mistakes or simply because they don’t like them. They’ll never say that’s the reason. There is not a process to appeal if your company is targeted. There is no judicial review, Mr. Snerdley. There is zero judicial review of anything in this regulatory bill. This is essentially a death penalty for companies if they don’t behave as Obama wants them to in every way, shape, manner, or form: From their political donations to the work they do for Obama’s friends versus enemies. Dick Morris did not lightly use the word “totalitarian” when describing the financial regulatory reform bill.
See, this is also how Obama will blunt a recent Supreme Court ruling which allows corporations to donate directly to political campaigns.
They want this done now to blunt the Supreme Court ruling. They know how hated and despised they are right now. They know. They can read their own polling data. They know it’s bad. They know it’s a bloodbath happening in November. They want to get as much of this stuff done before November as they can.
Wild Thing’s comment……….
This is NATIONALIZING ALL BUSINESS and believe me, it will NOT INCLUDE JUST WALL STREET LABELS…it will INCLUDE ALL SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES that are fluid and succeeding.
HORRIFIC. IT WILL KILL AMERICAN SPIRIT in the BUSINESS WORLD. sorry about all the caps , but Obama’s hate for the American dream, for all things about America is beyond limits….. it is stunning.
Chris Dodd belongs in prison. He’s responsible for what happened with the mortgage industry which led to the economic crisis in the country.
Or as Maxine Waters accidently referred to, “socializing” the economy. The Liberals want every aspect of the American economy to be govt. controlled, taxed and even owned.
Dodd can talk tough now. He is retiring and won’t face reelection. So he takes an opportunity to refocus his guilt to the GOP.
That seems to be a familiar tune of the democrats. If they can’t meddle with something its the fault of the Repubicans. BobF is right Dodd should be in prison along with Baannie Fwank and the rest of that wrecking crew. When there’s a crisis, the first thing they do is blame somebody, right now, the Repbulicans seem to be their most likely villian. From obama to Bart Kaputs, …er stupidpak blame the republicans, none of these whimps can take the blame for anything, its always somebody elses fault, Well you dumbass democrats YOU have the majority how come you can’t get anything done…that is responsible, just once.
Why do they need to regulate anybody, especially Wall Streed. The Market will take care of its self and weed out the weak links. Thats the way it was designed.
These people can’s see the forest for the trees. Nothing they do makes anything better. Nothing and we all know the long list of failures sponsored by the government. GM for example is still failing they had another Red Ink quarter of around 13 Billion.
But it works on both sides, yesterday Cavuto had on a Republican from Arizona(???) and he wanted a bill to be sponsored for acknowledging the crisis of spending in the government. He had all the facts right, just his solution was screwed up. Hey, why not just stop spending money we don’t have. Get all these ‘well Meaning’ legislators to stop signing on to all the earmarks. The whole damn bunch needs to be fired.
Dodd when he first got to congess as House member had a big hand in snatich defeat in Vietnam from the jaws of victory. When he came out in 1975 in favor of Pol Pot it shoold have been the end of his career but the newspapers here in Connecticut will see no evil where Chris Dodd is concerned. If you want to help things give some money to Peter Schiff for his run.
Dodd has already collected his millions from the down state bankers.
BobF., I agree sooooo much that is exactly what should happen to Dodd.
Tom, yes he has nothing to lose. Good point.
Mark, you are so right!!! I agree too, what the heck is so hard to see to just stop the spending.
Avitar, thank you so much for the information. I did not know that about Dodd and the Vietnam war. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr