Financial Reform Fails for Now
[Guest post by DRJ]
For now, it’s back to the drawing board for financial reform:
“Senate Republicans held together Monday afternoon to block efforts by Democrats to officially begin debate on the financial industry reform bill.
No Republicans cast a “yes” vote on the procedural motion, keeping Democrats from the 60 vote threshold needed to move forward. One Democrat, Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, voted “no” outright.
The vote was 57-41. Two Republicans did not vote: Utah’s Bob Bennett and Missouri’s Kit Bond. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid switched his vote to a “no” so that he can bring the bill back to the floor, something he is vowing to do that later this week.
Nelson said he couldn’t support moving to debate on a bill he hasn’t seen, and that his vote was not an indication that he would oppose the legislation.”
Republican Senator Richard Shelby is working with Democrat Chris Dodd on the legislation. Democrats, including President Obama, attribute the failure to Republican obstructionism. Republicans say the reforms need more bipartisan input.
— DRJ
Larry Reilly is going to be crushed. I predict at least one drunken incoherent comment.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 4/26/2010 @ 4:43 pmGives Dodd time to collect yet more graft from financial sector lobbyists that have been filling Democratic campaign coffers.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/26/2010 @ 4:50 pmWell, that’s if the money boys think that this mess of porridge actually has any chance of emerging.
AD - RtR/OS! (69f893) — 4/26/2010 @ 4:57 pmIf they think otherwise, we shall see a lot of Kongresskritters being cast to the wind.
Corker was pretty good on the Sunday show and he and Ryan hold the key. If they can stop this bill, which is loaded with benes for Goldman Sachs, they plan to introduce their own bill with a bankruptcy mechanism for the complex derivatives. Corker made a fortune in construction and real estate and is plenty smart. Interesting biography.
Mike K (2cf494) — 4/26/2010 @ 5:05 pmBen Nelson (D-Berkshire Hathaway) voted against cloture because a very large energy company in NE, with substantial BH investment, utilyzes derivitives to hedge energy costs, and Warren Buffet is not happy with the way the bill will cost this company he has invested millions/billions in, millions/billions.
Then, there is the two-tier way in which TBTF is to be handled: The big guys get backstopped, but the 2nd-tier investment banks get zilch.
If they want this to pass in any meaningful form, they will have to strip any form of bailout out of it, forcing these WS behemouths into the Bankruptcy Courts to be dismantled, where they should be, and where Lehman went, but Bear, AIG, and Merrill didn’t.
AD - RtR/OS! (69f893) — 4/26/2010 @ 6:17 pmWord out here is the financial reform bill is nothing less than a permanent “too big to fail” demolib government backed Obamacide / Geithner promise to wall street and the big banks and loan institutions and all the rest, forevermore, to be paid for in taxes / inflationary money supply printing debt.
SiliconDoc (7ba52b) — 4/26/2010 @ 11:53 pmYes, and the congro-demonrats will squeak and squeak they are bringing down the hammer on the evil giant greedy money lords and big oil too, and all the little faithful worshipper citizens and non citizens alike will scroll their pinkie finger around their O symbol they’ve carried with them since the new era, and coo what a wonderful yes we can in unison, just as duped as ever.
If the bill needs to be debated, why filibuster the motion to debate it?
Buzz Killington (9da03a) — 4/27/2010 @ 4:18 amHow can they debate a bill if they haven’t had time to read it? Oh, what am I saying? They don’t need to read it to debate it – nor even to vote on it. Obama said it was good, and so it must be. (amen)
Corwin (ea9428) — 4/27/2010 @ 5:06 amThe bill doesn’t need to be debated, Buzz. It’s a failure as written. It needs to go back to committee to be rewritten into a new form. This is the first chance to say, “This is too stupid to live,” and stop it. And there it is stopped.
luagha (7fd288) — 4/27/2010 @ 8:47 amYou might want to read this. The bill is a fake. All the regulation is of the competitors of the plugged in big fish. If you have an in wioth Dodd or Obama, you are safe to do what you want.
This, for example:
The Senate bill, sponsored by Democrat Chris Dodd, claims to subject all “too big to fail” institutions to greater federal supervision, but in fact it only mandates such regulation for bank-holding companies. Regulators would have to make a case-by-case decision on whether to apply it to other financial companies.
That’s no minor oversight, because insurance companies, like AIG, tend to have thrift charters rather than bank charters. So, as the bill stands now, AIG and other insurers that accepted massive bailout funds, such as The Hartford, would not be automatically covered. That’s a head-scratcher only if you forget that most insurance companies reside in Dodd’s home state, Connecticut.
There are other examples. Read the whole article. NO wonder Reid is in a hurry. This is another bill that will have to be passed to find out what is in it.
Mike K (2cf494) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:04 amBuzz, because what are needed are hearings on the bill, not senate floor posturing.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:36 amNote that there is a piece in the IBD that really shows that Graham got screwed over by Harry Reid.
That’s the Democrats version of bipartisanship. Break a deal and blame Republicans.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:57 am