General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn October 29th, something absolutely INSANE happened in the House of Representatives
In the wake of the financial crisis, many people were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of footing a multi-billion dollar bill every time Wall Street gambled its way into a corner. So, when Congress passed a new set of financial regulations known as Dodd-Frank in 2010, it included a provision that required banks to conduct some forms of derivatives trading in a more isolated way in an effort to reduce risk and make government bailouts less likely. Many reform advocates would have preferred much stronger protections, but given the $12.4 million in campaign contributions and $105 million in lobbying expenditures by Wall Street industry groups attempting to influence the law, it was certainly better than nothing.
This brings us to insane part: Now, the House has passed a bill that would roll back these derivative regulations and let banks go back to the same set of rules that let them break the economy in the first place. So, why is it that both parties have found a way to agree on a substantive regulatory change at a time when partisan bickering is supposedly making any progress impossible?
Its certainly not because the public is up in arms about rolling back derivative regulations most Americans have never heard of derivatives trading, let alone pressured their Member of Congress to deregulate it. No, this is happening for a very different reason: Big bank lobbyists wrote this bill.
Thats not a cute turn of phrase or an exaggeration The New York Times reports that 70 of the 85 lines in the new House bill reflect recommendations made in a piece of model legislation drafted by lobbyists for Citigroup, another bank that played a major role in the 2008 crisis and also received billions of federal stimulus dollars. The same report also revealed two crucial paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word. You can even view the original documents and see how Citigroups lobbyists redrafted the House Bill, striking out ideas they didnt like and replacing them with ones they did. Citigroup is quite literally writing its own rules.
THE REST of this disgusting story:
http://daily.represent.us/theres-something-absolutely-insane-happening-house-right-now/
2naSalit
(86,577 posts)raging moderate
(4,302 posts)Personally, I want Glass-Steagall reinstated. Listen up, Republicons, Dodd-Frank IS a compromise!
littlewolf
(3,813 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)gopiscrap
(23,757 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)The corruption in D.C. stinks. She isn't mired in it yet.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)The moment that many of us heard that Obama was drafting Geithner to be his head man of the overall economy, and let the guy serve as Secretary of the Treasury, we knew we had been hoodwinked,.
Our elected officials are nothing more than the well paid, rubber-stamping puppets of the Top Financial Firms. Doesn't matter if they' re sitting in the House or in the Senate, or in the Oval Office.
98% of the friggin' "elected" henchmen and henchwomen are indeed working hard, but as Kucinich asked some time ago, what many of us want to know is exactly whom it is that they are working so hard for.
It certainly is not for us.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Destroy, tear apart, create chaos and then blame the innocent.. Sound Familiar?.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)"Isn't that right Jamie? Isn't that right Lloyd?"
KoKo
(84,711 posts)They figure we out here are too dumb to keep up with Wall Street Lobby and Big Money going for a Second Bail Out! We have short memories. We are still at WAR 12 Years after 9/11...and most Americans don't give a flying ..........F!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)BillyRibs
(787 posts)Guillotine. The Hegelian Dialect will happen. this time not as they would think.
davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)But... 70 lines in this bill were written by lobbyists for Citigroup? Bi-partisan support... hmm. Yeah, even a mathematical imbecile like me can figure out people are going to get screwed again.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)CONGRESS PARTY DUES PRACTICE CHARGES MEMBERS FOR COMMITTEE SPOTS
In particular, Ways and Means, Financial Services, and Energy and Commerce are very good fundraising committees. And for good reason: Ways and Means has jurisdiction over tax policy, Financial Services over securities and banking policy, and Energy and Commerce over energy policy. In all three policy areas, a substantial number of corporations care very much about how policy gets made, and their employees are willing to contribute substantial sums both through their PACs and individually to make sure that they have access.
Committee assignments that give a politician the ability to directly affect the policies most important to monied interests are more likely to help those politicians reap the benefits of campaign contributions. Simply put, certain committees are more lucrative. How much more lucrative you might ask? Well, thanks to the Sunlight Foundation we have two very helpful tables at our disposal.Table 1 shows the estimated bonus in itemized contributions as well as bonus PAC fundraising totals. Relationships that are statistically significant are in bold.
http://daily.represent.us/party-dues-committee-spots/
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/04/02/housecommittees/
Triana
(22,666 posts)I agree. Gut Citizens United and all the rest of the "buy the gov't you want" bullshit and mandate that elections be publicly funded.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)[font size=7]
CORRUPTION
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