Financial Regulation Passes In The House-- Wall Street Probably High Fiving Like Mad

Monday I talked about how much of a downer this whole financial regulatory legislation has turned out to be. With the anti-regulatory sociopaths in the GOP giving lobbyists, Blue Dogs, Rahm Emanuel, and Rahm Emanuel Juniors all the room they needed to turn a well-meaning impulse-- and urgently needed set of reforms-- into tea so weak that some questioned if it was even worth passing at all, the House did so yesterday evening. Before I circle back to discuss the vote, take heed of what a very reform-minded Russ Feingold had to say about the legislation:

Wall Street and its allies have been calling the shots in Congress for decades, so they must be glad to see how things are shaping up on financial regulatory reform. Congress is about to vote on a final bill that fails to fix the key flaws in the bills passed by both the House and Senate. At the start of this process I made clear that I had a simple test for financial reform-- will it stop another financial meltdown? This bill fails that test, and I won't support legislation that fails to protect the people of Wisconsin from the pain of another economic disaster. And I don't need to be lectured about this issue by people who supported the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which paved the way for this terrible recession.

I had hoped I would be able to support the legislation, given the clear need for strong reform. I cosponsored a number of critical amendments during Senate consideration of the bill including a Cantwell-McCain amendment to restore Glass-Steagall safeguards, Senator Dorgan's amendment that addressed the problem of "too big to fail" financial institutions, and another "too big to fail" reform offered by Senators Brown and Kaufman that proposed strict limits on the size of those institutions. Each of those amendments would have improved the bill significantly, and each of them either failed or was blocked from even getting a vote.

After that, it wasn't a close call for me. It would be a huge mistake to pass a bill that purports to re-regulate the financial industry but is simply too weak to protect people from the recklessness of Wall Street. That would be like building an impressive-looking dam without telling everyone that it has a few leaks in it. False security is no security at all... On this bill, like the others that preceded it, the biggest financial interests have won.

Because it was meant to be the more representative of actual people the two chambers, the Constitution states that all financial legislation must originate in the House. Other than that it's almost not worth paying them much heed. As we've seen over and over, the House passes a nearly worthless bill and then the Senate makes sure it's worse than worthless and then the House agrees when it comes back. I'd yawn if it still didn't anger me so much. Yesterday the weak tea financial legislation passed 237-192 (3 relatively mainstream Republicans, Cao, Castle and Jones, joining all but 19 Boehner-boys to pass it).

With the exception of Marcy Kaptur, none of the Democrats voting against it were against it because, like Feingold, they wanted a stronger bill. The list below represents a gaggle of knee-jerk, proto-Republican conservatives who long ago sold whatever they had of hearts and souls to the special interests:

Marion Berry (Blue Dog-AR)- who probably voted NO either because he hates Obama so much or because he was drunk, or, most likely, both
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Rick Boucher (VA)
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
Mark Critz (PA)
Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN)
Chet Edwards (TX)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)
Bill Owens (NY)
Tom Perriello (VA)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Ike Skelton (MO)

Gene Taylor isn't in Washington and John Barrow is pissing his pants over a primary this month, which explains why two of the most reactionary, aisle-crossing Blue Dogs aren't on the above list. Earlier Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ), Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA), Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD), Betsy Markey (Blue Dog-CO), Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA) had voted to kill the bill in a parliamentary procedure-- recommitting-- that failed.

Oklahoma state Senator Jim Marshall, the intrepid progressive Democrat from the northeast corner of the state who's taking on Dan Boren in a primary this month, saw right through Boren's vote yesterday. "He obviously cares less about working families than Wall Street. He apparently believes naively that 'free' markets work and regulated markets are an inconvenience. Even after Alan Greenspan capitulated in his textbook theory of markets Dan Boren won't give in. He prefers putting his constituents at risk of further financial and economic failure because of Wall Street greed."

I'm not sure if Obama has unleashed OFA on Senator Wilson yet, although with Boren opposing him on everything, I'm sure he will do all he can to help him win reelection; it's the way Obama works. We probably should have waited 8 or 12 years for him to mature politically before electing him to the presidency. Too late now. He said he was very happy about the weak tea bill that passed today:

Today’s House vote in favor of Wall Street Reform puts us on the cusp of passing a law that will give consumers greater protection and safeguard our economy against future financial crises. It has been a long fight against the defenders of the status quo on Wall Street, but today’s vote is a victory for every American who has been affected by the recklessness and irresponsibility that led to the loss of millions of jobs and trillions in wealth.    
 
I want to thank Chairman Dodd and Chairman Frank for their tireless commitment to passing the most far-reaching reform since the Great Depression. 
 
It will put in place the strongest consumer financial protections in history, curbing abuses by banks, mortgage and credit card companies and giving their customers the information they need to make responsible financial decisions. It will make our financial system more transparent, so that complex transactions that escaped scrutiny in the past will now be done in the light of day. And it will put an end to the idea that any financial firm is too big to fail, and therefore entitled to taxpayer bailouts.
 
The law also will put in place the Volcker rule so that banks don’t put the savings of millions of Americans at risk.
 
America’s economic future depends on a thriving financial sector to provide the capital families require to meet their needs and businesses must have to grow and hire. But, as we have seen, it also must operate within a sensible framework of rules and regulations, adequate to hold financial institutions accountable. The comprehensive law the House passed today achieves this goal, and I look forward to passage in the Senate and signing the bill into law.

Do I think he's deliberately misleading the American people? Well, I don't think he's stupid.