Joe Crowley, the most corrupt Democrat in Congress, is the vice chair of the Party Caucus. Many members see his hand in the Wall Street deregulation dealSometimes the DCCC whines that their favorite right-wing incumbents and candidates have to "change up" messaging because their districts lean red. That "strategy" sure didn't help Republican-backing Blue Dogs like Nick Rahall (WV), John Barrow (GA) and Pete Gallego (TX) last month. All of them lost their seats. Barrow and Gallego were back in their seats on Thursday evening for their last-ever votes in Congress-- backing the Wall Street deregulation plan against working families and taxpayers. And they were joined by half a dozen other right-wing bank shills who won't be back in January and voted for the banksters Thursday-- Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ), Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Bill Owens (New Dem-NY), Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL), and Allyson Schwartz (New Dem-PA).I was struck by how many of the treacherous Wall Street Democrats are in solid blue districts and have nothing to fear by backing working families against the deprecations of Wall Street predators. Of the 57 Democrats who are returning to Congress in January and who voted for the derivatives deregulation Thursday, all of these are in solid blue districts:
• Sanford Bishop (GA)- D+6- $958,210• Robert Brady (PA)- D+28- $447,725• Cheri Bustos (IL)- D+7- $302,461• John Carney (DE)- D+8- $1,387,728• Lacy Clay (MO)- D+28- $717,225• Jim Clyburn (SC)- D+21- $2,189,625• Gerry Connolly (VA)- D+10- $884,757• Joe Crowley (NY)- D+26- $5,048,691• Henry Cuellar (TX)- D+7- $1,052,513• Sam Farr (CA)- D+21- $417,261• Chaka Fattah (PA)- D+38- $609,677• Bill Foster (IL)- D+8- $1,540,500• Steny Hoyer (MD)- D+14- $4,960,575• Marcy Kaptur (OH)- D+15- $417,860• Gregory Meeks (NY)- D+35- $2,561,388• Donald Norcross (NJ)- D+13- $215,256• David Price (NC)- D+20- $862,357• Mike Quigley (IL)- D+16- $562,175• Cedric Richmond (LA)- D+23- $290,695• Dutch Ruppersberger (MD)- D+10- $1,035,928• David Scott (GA)- D+16- $2,155,804• Terri Sewell (AL)- D+20- $903,420• Brad Sherman (CA)- D+14- $2,816,848• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)- D+9- $1,619,616
The dollar amount next to each name is how much money in legalistic bribes each Member has taken from the Finance sector. I thought it might be helpful for anyone paying attention. Yesterday Sen. Jeff Merkley, who is absolutely opposed to the kinds of Wall Street giveaways being pushed by Republicans and Democrats like Chuck Schumer from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. He sent this message to his Oregon constituents.
Late last night, the House of Representatives passed a $1 trillion spending package to keep the government running through September. And they included in it a Wall Street giveaway that puts taxpayers back on the hook for banks' risky bets. We need to fight.One of the important provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law was pushing swaps out of taxpayer-insured depository institutions. These swaps are essentially bets on things like the prices of commodities or financial instruments. In 2008 when banks' bets went bad, taxpayers bailed them out and ordinary Americans lost jobs, homes, and retirement savings. That's why the reforms pushed those risky activities out of the banks-- if the bets go bad, taxpayers shouldn't be at risk.Now, in order to enrich a handful of the biggest banks in the world, the House is saying working families and small businesses across America should once again be put at risk. Let's stand up and say no.Putting this Wall Street giveaway into a must-pass bill to keep the government funded is the beginning of an all-out assault to roll back the reforms and turn the keys of our economy over to Wall Street once again. We saw how that turned out last time.We need an economy that is designed to create opportunity and success for middle class families, not one designed to enrich Wall Street at everyone else's expense.Make your voice heard and help us spread the word on Facebook today.This kind of stealth effort to dismantle Dodd-Frank is unacceptable-- let's shine a light on this provision. Wall Street has its army of lobbyists; the American people have you.
UPDATE: Last Night's CRomnibus VotesHere's how it went down. First there was a cloture bill. The Democrats who were really serious about blocking Schumer's Wall Street bailout voted against cloture. They were ready to filibuster for real. There were only 5 plus Bernie: Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Al Franken, Joe Manchin, Claire McCaskill. And, of course a bunch of crackpot Republicans who actually want to shut down the government. The total there was 77-19. What happened to Jeff Merkely, Tammy Baldwin, Brian Schatz, Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed? Once the filibuster was broken and it was impossible to really stop the thing from passing, senators could posture and preen on the final bill-- and they did. Corporate whores like Bob Menendez (NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Cory Booker (NJ), Maria Cantwell (WA), Ed Markey (MA) and Carl Levin (MI) scurried across the aisle to safely pose as liberals. Tom Harkin (IA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Barbara Boxer (CA) too. It passed 56-40.The sideshow in between the two votes was Cruz's nonsensical constitutional point of order making sure he and his cronies were on record wanting to deport 14 million Latinos and Asians and impeach President Obama. It failed 74-22, 20 Republicans joining every Democrat to in telling Cruz to grow up and start acting like an American. Among 2016 GOP presidential/vice-presidential contenders Cruz was joined by Rand Paul (KY), Rob Portman (OH), Marco Rubio (FL) and John Thune (SD).