Elizabeth Warren is fighting Wall Street for the soul of the Democratic Party

[RiverLover]

Elizabeth Warren is fighting Wall Street for the soul of the Democratic Party
12/11/2014



Bill Clinton changed the Democratic Party, and Elizabeth Warren is trying to change it back — at least when it comes to Wall Street.

The latest intra-party skirmish has come over the so-called "CRomnibus" (don't ask) spending bill that would have funded the government for the next year, as well as, among other pet projects, killed Dodd-Frank's prohibition on big banks using federally-insured money to make exotic bets. Now, that wouldn't gut financial reform by any means, but it would be the latest step in Wall Street's death-by-a-thousand-tweaks campaign against it. And that was too much for Warren, who led a liberal revolt against the bill that ultimately failed.

But what would this derivatives change even do? Well, swaps are just bets on everything from interest rates to currencies to whether a company is going to go under or not.

...The bigger issue is whether every legislative choke point will turn into another opportunity to whittle away at financial reform. That's why Warren and her allies have decided to draw a line in the sand here, over swaps push-outs. If they don't fight this battle, then they'll have to get ready for the next one over even more important parts of Dodd-Frank—and so on, and so on.

But this isn't a fight that all Democrats want. Some of them are happy to give Wall Street what it wants. That's been true ever since Clinton turned them into not the party of business, but a party of business—and particularly Wall Street business. The Warren wing of the Democratic Party, of course, wants to change this. That's why they oppose filling even lower-level Treasury positions with Wall Street veterans, and why they've rallied against a giveaway to big banks tucked away in the government funding bill.

If Hillary Clinton has any weaknesses, as Noam Scheiber argues, it's her close ties to Wall Street. The question very well could be whether the Democratic Party's soul belongs more to her and her husband or to Elizabeth Warren.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/11/elizabeth-warren-is-fighting-wall-street-for-the-soul-of-the-democratic-party/

[newfie11]

1. Good luck Liz

It's going to be one hell of an up hill battle.

[RiverLover]

6. It sure is. There are many Wall Street Dems/Rethug lites in our party.

Last night's vote proved that.

(If anyone doubted it prior to that.)

[world wide wally]

16. They're the only ones that can afford to buy it

[raouldukelives]

18. Yes, sadly all paid for by many in our own party. By those devoid of a soul to care for the least.

Or for the damage they do to this generation and more horribly, the future they are leaving for the next.
It is a Wall St democracy. Those who invest in it, get exactly what they paid for, and hopefully have the funds to shield themselves from the reality they helped create. Those who don't, are left to live in that reality, as best they can, until like Eric Garner, they are choked out on the street for failure to obey corporate law. Just as surely as they are choking out our wilderness, wildlife, fresh water, education, food, labor, health care and liberty. Every dollar providing a little extra weight on the boot stamping our face, forever.

[YarnAddict]

2. Some things are worth

shutting the government down.

[whathehell]

3. Agreed. nt

[rug]

4. Good headline.

[Enthusiast]

5. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

[Scuba]

7. It's apparently too late.

[liberal_at_heart]

12. very accurate illustration.

[bajamary]

8. It's official, I can no longer "be a Democrat".

A long, long time ago I feared that Obama was a Jamie-Dimon want-to-be. Then, in office, Obama put Larry Summers (former Goldman Sacks) in charge of the recovery, and together they tried to stop the Progressives from their clearly needed financial reform (Dodd-Frank bill) and Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Agency. Obama's actions yesterday in ramming the $1 Trillion dollar give away to banks like Jamie Dimon's is a stain on his legacy that, in time, will overtake the Obamacare benefits.

I will no longer stand by the Democratic Party. I am no longer a Democrat. It is immoral to support these robber barons of Wall Street. I will not support Hillary or any "centrist" or "boardroom liberal" like the power behind Obama, Valerie Jarret (both are want-to-be-Jamie-Dimon).

[MsLeopard]

11. It seems Obama is cementing his position

as a member of "the club." He and generations of his family will be well taken care of by those he has served and protected. Wall Street criminals should have gone to jail, instead they have been rewarded with unlimited taxpayer money and the middle class has suffered from six years of Obama where 95% of the gains in the recovery went to the 1%. But he and his are set for eternity. Unbelievable when I think about how happy we all were in Nov 2008 when we thought we were getting the next FDR.

[geek tragedy]

13. Please don't tell falsehoods. The CPFB exists because of Obama

and his willingness to fight for it.

Since you are now a Naderite, you do not belong here.

[Dustlawyer]

17. +1!!! Obama has finally jumped the shark!

People need to face the truth and stop saying, " the spineless Democrats caved..." or "The Democrats were afraid of the Republicans!" These ambitious men and women are no different than the Republicans running for office, they want power and money, and they want to stay in Washington. The best way to do that is to hold fundraisers year round and receive regular checks from corporations for doing their bidding. They know that if they change their positions the checks will stop and in their next primary they will have a well funded opponent who will most likely boot them out of power and influence.

They bribe our politicians right in front of us! The media actually rank a politician's chances based on how much in bribes they can collect! Since St. Reagan, corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce realized they could just buy BOTH PARTYS! They do it now from the local level all the way up. You don't get into position to win election without them unless you already have a big name for yourself (Elizabeth Warren wouldn't be a Senator without all of the money sent to her from regular folks from around the country). We cannot do this in all races, but they can! They buy School Boards and Judges, Governors and Presidents. For all of the social good that Obama has accomplished, he has ALWAYS, from the beginning, supported and protected Wall Street.

We can no longer do things like ignore a Bernie Sanders because, "he is not electable, we must vote for Hillary to prevent the Republican Bogyman from winning!" I am no longer holding my nose and voting for the lesser of two evils. The Plutocrats own both, and while the supposed Democrat is better than the Republucan, we end up giving away everything in the end.

My solution is to fight for Bernie Sanders and support his call for an end to campaign contributions and instituting Publicly Funded Elections. We hit them head on where they get their power of control. The more people we get to the cause the more politicans will come around to our way of thinking. When we have the votes to do this and return Representative Democracy back to us, we get them to bust up the big banks and media conglomerates.

It will not happen unless we make it! It is past time, let's do this!

[polichick]

22. After decades as a Dem activist, I too quit the party a couple of years ago...

Welcome to sanity.

[WillyT]

9. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[antigop]

10. Lloyd Blankfein: "I held fundraisers for her." (HRC) nt

[Tatiana]

14. Sad that she is pretty much the only Democrat with the moral fortitude to stand up to Wall Street.

She is what you call a public servant.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. And yet Peter DeFazio for example, who is my Rep voted against this bill and has been casting such

votes in the House since 1987, when Warren was still a trickle down Republican warming up to vote for George Bush. Is it fair to him and all the other Democrats who have taken similar stands and who in fact took this stand to claim they do not even exist? She's not the only one.

[polichick]

21. True - but she knows how to get media coverage.

[fadedrose]

15. Another weaknesss

"If Hillary Clinton has any weaknesses, as Noam Scheiber argues, it's her close ties to Wall Street...."

Another would be her ability to give a speech in a way that sustains my interest. Her cadence is off or something, and I find it painful to listen to her. It doesn't matter what she's saying, it's the way she says it, as though she's speaking to a room full of hard-of-hearing Americans or foreigners who barely know our language, or children.

I am not saying that this is the case for everyone who listens to her. Many think she's quite good at speech-giving. This is only my opinion, and last I looked, nobody cares what I think.

[polichick]

20. They tried to shut her up with an official title...

Now what will they do to shut her up?