Bankster Shills Making Their Move To Wreck Financial Regulation In Committee

That tweet above from this morning refers to a post by Mike Elk regarding, Melissa Bean's mania to weaken any and all legislation that allows states to regulate banksters, her patrons and the financiers of her disgraceful political career. Unfortunately she has a seat on the House Financial Services Committee, where she is constantly working with Republican obstructionists to undermine progressive reformers.

In layman's terms, Bean's amendment guts the current regulatory framework in which states play the role of the local cops on the beat. It's like moving all of the country's fire departments to Washington. We need regulators out on the front line who can respond quickly to problems before someone's house is burned down by a liar's loan or an entire economy is burned by risky investments... We need states to be cops on the beat watching the banks. So why in the world is Bean trying to disarm the police so necessary for protecting Main Street from Wall Street? It's because the three-term Illinois congresswoman and leader in the New Democrat Coalition has pocketed almost $2.2 million since she's been in Congress from the banking and financial services interests she oversees as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, including $338,125 so far this year.

Wall Street Democrats like Bean are currently flooding the House floor with amendments favorable to Wall Street to the House financial reform bill.

Also important to read today is a piece by Damian Paletta at the Wall Street Journal, Financial Bill Hits Big Banks Hardest, which goes a long way towards clarifying an important aspect of the current financial legislation being discussed in the Financial Services Committee.

Lawmakers, responding to popular anger against banks and bailouts, voted repeatedly during hours of committee debate in recent months to add amendments that police large financial companies in ways not envisioned by a White House proposal in June... The shift could have major implications for larger financial companies, particularly if the public mood crystallizes around the notion that too big to fail means too big at all. New fees devised by the House for large financial companies could top $150 billion, industry experts said... The populist bent could alienate moderate lawmakers and make it harder for legislation to pass. But it could also mean more dramatic changes for banks if the package eventually becomes law.

...The House of Representatives could vote as soon as Friday on a plan to overhaul financial-sector regulation. The legislation has several measures aimed at policing big banks:

1) Regulators would be able to block a healthy bank from certain business practices or mergers, even order it to shrink, if its size, interconnectedness or other variables were deemed to pose a risk to the U.S. economy.

2) Financial companies with more than $50 billion of assets would have to pay into a $150 billion fund to deal with future collapses of large financial companies.

3) The government would be able to order certain large banks to split off their commercial bank from their investment bank if regulators identify specific concerns.

4) Large banks would have to submit to consumer compliance exams from a new federal agency, while many small banks would be exempt.

Smaller institutions are supporting the bill, like the members of the Independent Community Bankers of America and the Council of Institutional Investors (a non-profit which represents pension funds for unions, public employees and companies.) As Barney Frank, Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said the other day, "Sometimes you are best defined by your opponents-- and this is one of those cases." Barney, meet Melissa; she's as bad as Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Tom Price (R-GA), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and the other bankster lackeys on the committee.


UPDATE: GOP Will Not Take This Attempt By Progressives To Protect The Public Laying Down

In fact, according to Roll Call, Boehner, Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Garrett and Hensarling "met with more than a 100 lobbyists at the Capitol Visitors Center on Tuesday afternoon to try to fight back against financial regulatory overhaul legislation."

“The message was [House Financial Services Chairman Barney] Frank and the Democratic majority are ruining America, ruining capitalism, and stand up for yourselves,” said a lobbyist who attended the meeting. “They said, ‘Look, you all oppose this bill, but only a few of you have come out publicly.’”

In addition to asking trade associations to get their members in Congressional districts to write letters opposing the legislation, Republicans asked for companies and trade associations to use their Democratic consultants to gather intelligence on where members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Blue Dog Coalition are in supporting the legislation.