Fred Upton's Monkey CourtOn Wednesday, the House voted 292-122 to gut a significant portion of the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection law. Irresponsible banksters addicted to risky gambling will once again be able to take those risks knowing that if they get into trouble, the taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab.
If you're a regular DWT reader, you know better. Of course, virtually every Republican in Congress is a full on shill for Wall Street. It's part of their DNA. But it's part of the DNA of a significant chunk of the Democratic congressional caucus as well. When it comes to catering to Wall Street there is virtually no difference whatsoever between Republicans and New Dems. Yesterday, 70 Wall Street-oriented Democrats voted with all but 3 Republicans to pass H.R. 992, an amendment to gut a piece of the Dodd-Frank financial reform consumer protection act.
Tuesday saw two very important Senate votes. First came Harry Reid's cloture vote to end the nearly two year-long GOP filibuster of Richard Cordray's nomination to be Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The Republicans and their Wall Street masters don't want consumers protected from banksters and they oppose the Bureau itself and have blocked Cordray's appointment for that reason rather than because they found anything wrong with Cordray himself.
I think most Members of Congress, financed and sold out as they are to Wall Street, abhor the idea of going to war with the banksters over regulations. The finance sector spends more on bribing federal elected officials-- $663,265,994 last cycle alone-- than any other industry. And, although they give a bit more to Republicans, they give plenty to both corrupt Beltway parties.
Wall St. shills Crowley & Himes, leading freshmen to slaughterEarly this morning we saw how California voters drove the obstructionist Republicans away from the levers of power and made it impossible for them to obstruct government. And the result was a $60 billion deficit turned into a $4 billion surplus.
The Grayson Takano No Cuts letter is the gold standardThe House doesn't usually stay in sessions Fridays, let alone take serious votes, but this past Friday, as we mentioned yesterday, Boehner and Cantor kept the Members in town to repay a promise they had made to their Wall Street masters to further weaken the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill.
"What do you expect? 'Crook' is my middle name"Last election cycle the Wall Street banksters poured $83,722,946 into campaign contributions for congressional candidates, $55,447,942 for Republicans and $28,077,244 for Democrats. Their #1 agenda item was to get Congress to further water down Dodd Frank.
