Republicans agree to begin debate on financial overhaul legislation
By Shailagh Murray and Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Republicans ended their three-day filibuster of a financial regulatory overhaul on Wednesday, reaching agreement with Democrats to begin debate on the legislation.
After voting three times this week to block debate, GOP senators decided to reverse course and attempt to reshape the bill through the amendment process. The change in tactics came after Senate Banking Committee Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), announced that they had failed to reach agreement on a bipartisan compromise.
In back to back Senate floor speeches, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed to allow proceedings on the legislation to begin at 12:15 p.m. Thursday.
"It is my hope that the majority's avowed interest in improving this legislation on the Senate floor is genuine and the partisan gamesmanship is over," McConnell said. Reid said he would permit numerous GOP amendments to be considered, a pledge that some Republican senators had sought before lifting their objections.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Republicans ended their three-day filibuster of a financial regulatory overhaul on Wednesday, reaching agreement with Democrats to begin debate on the legislation.
After voting three times this week to block debate, GOP senators decided to reverse course and attempt to reshape the bill through the amendment process. The change in tactics came after Senate Banking Committee Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), announced that they had failed to reach agreement on a bipartisan compromise.
In back to back Senate floor speeches, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed to allow proceedings on the legislation to begin at 12:15 p.m. Thursday.
"It is my hope that the majority's avowed interest in improving this legislation on the Senate floor is genuine and the partisan gamesmanship is over," McConnell said. Reid said he would permit numerous GOP amendments to be considered, a pledge that some Republican senators had sought before lifting their objections.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
1 Comments:
oh the irony. The same people who got us in this financial mess are the same ones who are going to 'fix' the problems they created - Congress. The government via Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are the nexus of the mortgage crisis and are not even part of the reform. This bill formalizes that we will do for Wall Street what the government did for Freddie and Fannie by putting the taxpayer on the hook to guarantee bad mortgages. Now, the taxpayer will be on the hook for bad Wall Street invstments because this bill will re-regulate the financial markets and then bail them out through the bailout fund - the Resolution Trust Corporation version 2.0. So, Dodd et al say they will make sure that Wall Street won't make bad financial decisions, right?? Who are these guys kidding?? How will the government know which financial decisions should be made and to whom so they won't go bad?? Because government invests for political returns (i.e. re-election) and not for a monetary return, this bill will be a disaster because it will be a perpetual bailout bill with the governement once again in charge of financial decisions like they were with the mortgage decisions of Freddie and Fannie! When the government sponsored enterprises like Freddie and Fannie guaranteed their loans, it sowed the seeds for a bailout. We are doing the exact same thing that got us in the mortgage mess with this financial services bill and Freddie and Fannie aren't even touched by this bill!! This bill will exascerbate the bailouts not prevent them!! When in God's name are we going to learn from our mistakes??? Wall Street had nothing to do with the mortgage crisis because we would still have had the housing bubble from all the bad mortgages that were made and guaranteed by the taxpayer through Freddie and Fannie. Wall Street just made bets on the collateralized debt obligations and the mortgage backed securities, etc...these were just the hedges against the bad loans in the Freddie and fannie portfolios, not the reason for the collapse.
How about this for reform - no regulation and no bailout. If a financial institution or mortgage lender knew that they were the ones on the hook for bad loans and bad financial decisions, that would do more to re-regulate the markets than this stupid bill would do. But, I guess what we want in this country is for the government to be in charge of finacial decisions and induce bailouts when things go bad. This bill couldn't possibly be a bigger disaster.
Post a Comment
<< Home