If they follow through with this, it’s a win-win scenario.
Liberal Democrats see an opportunity to reassert their power in the Senate this spring on the Wall Street reform bill, after being forced to swallow a series of compromises on everything from health care reform to jobs legislation.
A group of Democrats, joined by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, are planning an aggressive spring offensive to strengthen key provisions of the financial reform bill — and daring Senate Republicans to vote against them.
“Given that [large financial firms] steered this country into the ditch, it’s going to be very hard to stand up on the floor and say don’t do financial reform or do it without teeth,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). “There are a number of people in our caucus who feel like there are things that can be done to strengthen it.”
Liberal Democrats believe widespread frustration across the country with Wall Street bailouts will make it difficult for Senate Republicans to mount a full-scale opposition to the legislation, particularly as voters near the midterm elections this fall.
Those tricky politics, they believe, offer an opening to move to the left the legislation that passed the Senate Banking Committee last month — a chance the caucus lacked on health care, which divided the electorate and prompted an outcry from conservatives who rallied against the bill to voice their opposition to President Barack Obama.
Unions, consumer groups, party activists and liberals on Capitol Hill see regulatory reform as a win-win issue: They get either a strong bill or a strong campaign argument for the midterm elections.
“If they pass something and it’s relatively strong, it’s seen as a big victory for consumers, and if they get a strong Republican pushback, electorally Democrats think they would benefit from it,” said a Democratic aide for a member involved in the effort.
Their efforts conflict with those of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and party moderates, who are pushing to focus more on compromising with Republicans. Dodd has spent months in negotiations with Republicans on his committee, trying to craft a deal that could fly through the Senate with significant bipartisan backing… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Politico>
Dodd’s bill is to Finance what BARF (Baucus Against a Real Fix) was to Health Care. Even if the Republicans can successfully filibuster a strong bill, that will drive a wedge between the leadership and the Teabaggers. They hate Wall Street. Let the GOP defend their protection of their corporate masters to voters.
8 Responses to “Will Democrats Take on Wall Street?”
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History is repeating itself. The liberal Senate railed against Wall Street excesses from ’26-’29 and they were ignored and bypassed by the then Republican administration. Hell even the Fed at the time was trying to reform Wall Street but they were unsuccessful.
The same forces are at work now as then…money and lobbyists so I hope the Dems will take their political talking points and scream them out because I doubt there will be any serious banking regulatory reform in this out of touch with reality congress.
Mark, I can’t disagree with you. But I won’t quit trying. Were it not for sixties activists, we’d still be fighting in Vietnam.
I hope this works – Dodd should retire already – working with the Repubs on anything gets you no where as we have seen with previous legislation. We put in everything they want and they still vote against it. That’s not bi-partisanship, that’s extortion.
It’s like a protection racket with no protection.
Tom writes:
It’s like a protection racket with no protection.
YES! YES! YES!
Thanks, Mike.
I hope this plan will work for the Democrats. This is a crucial issue and the Democrats should be on the popular side with this. But:
Health care reform was popular too when Obama first got elected. He even said he was in favor of the public option during the ’08 election. Then gazillions of dollars got spewed out by the HMOs, Big Lies (i.e. death panels) that millions of dunces believed, orchestrated “demonstrations” put on by astroturf groups…
Wall Street has enough money to make the HMOs look like a bunch of street beggars. I hope this finance reform bill will pass, but expect to see lots of hysterical TV ads warning us about God knows what, and jillions of bone-stupid demonstrators yelling “keep the government out of my bank account!”
True Tom. Today’s lead item deals with just that.