Republicans’ False Populism
Republicans have been pretty shameless in their attempts to exploit the financial crisis for electoral gain. Even though the bailouts were done under Bush, they’ve managed to pretend it was all Obama’s fault. Now Republicans have been pretty shamelessly pushing talking points that the new financial regulation bill will create more taxpayer bailouts despite the fact that it’s designed to prevent them. Democrats have actually been pushing back against these talking points pretty hard and now the New York Times has published an editorial in support of the Democratic bill called “Whose Side Are They On?”
Their battle cry of “no more bailouts” is disingenuous. They are not worried that reform will make bankers’ lives too easy, they are worried that it will make them too hard.
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Ms. Lincoln’s proposal is not perfect. But among other smart reforms, it would require that nearly all derivatives be traded on exchanges. The only exemptions would be for unique contracts, which would be policed by regulators, and for a tightly defined group of companies that use derivatives for a narrow range of purposes.
It would be better — and safer — if there were no corporate exemptions. Legislators should fight to make that the law when reform is debated on the Senate floor. The proposal is a very good start, and if strengthened in a few areas, it would be a huge improvement over the status quo. And that is why Republicans are so upset.
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The White House and Democratic leaders need to push back hard against Republican posturing, making it clear to Americans that robust reform is the only way to protect the system — and taxpayers — from a repeat catastrophe. When Republicans try to block reform, they are doing nothing more than shilling for the banks.
It’s long been a Republican policy to funnel taxpayer money to big business in the name of “privatization.” Republicans are the ones who funneled taxpayer money to banks to give student loans (while the banks took their own cut, pretty profitable since the banks weren’t putting up their own money). Republicans are the ones who gave no-bid contracts to Halliburton and lost billions of dollars in Iraq. Republicans stood for the status quo for health insurance companies, so that they could continue to take your money and then deny you coverage if you got ill.
Democrats seem like they’re ready to take on Republicans on this issue. I hope they do a better job at communicating than they have with the health care reform bill. I hope they’ve learned that Republicans fight dirty and that it’s going to take more than facts to convince people. It’s going to take a real communication strategy and I hope Democrats have been working on one.
Seems like just yesterday Republicans were telling us the financial crisis was all the fault of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Bill Clinton for not regulating enough. Remember the talking point about how Bush wanted more regulations but Dodd wouldn’t let him?
I also remember it’s the fault of the CRA, even though the TBTF banks weren’t even covered by the CRA.
Poll: 4 out of 5 Americans don’t trust Washington
AP ^ | 04/19/2010
Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don’t trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America’s ills, the survey found. The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this fall’s elections. Midterm prospects are typically tough for the party in power. Add a toxic environment like this and lots of incumbent Democrats could be out of…
Republicans are making a big mistake on this one, the public wants strong, effective reform, not more Mitch McConnell nonsense. As Goldman-Sachs plays out and expands the tide, the wind, and the public will overwhelm thier lame attempts to declare black as white and night as day. And I can’t wait.
I think they are too, bamboozer but the Democrats need to communicate effectively. Republicans have a message: financial reform = bailouts. What is the easy-to-remember Democratic message?
Not surprisingly, the “Financial Reform = More Bailouts” meme is a Frank Luntz production. In fact, exactly the opposite is true. The status quo means continued bailouts, whereas Fin-Reg reform is designed specifically to avoid bailouts. Like the HCR “debate”, conservatives have decided that the only way they can win is to spin the truth 180 degrees. UI is right — Democrats need to get out in front of this as much as possible and do a better job of educating people on the truth. Unfortunately, this might be even harder than last time, as even fewer people know anything about the financial sector than the healthcare industry. We need something along the lines of “No Financial Reform = Wall Street Wins”, but much better.
Get real! Yeah Bush started the bailouts first, but you can’t just look the other way at the bailouts of Obama! Why didnt Obama put in that the money WE gave to Wall Street HAD to come back to banks in forms of loans to help Main Street. Chris Dodd does have a hand in all this mess…they are all to blame. Starting with Ronald Reagun and lets not forget ole Clinton and his buds. They are all responsible and its a fact. So lets stop putting ALL the blame on the republicans, though the deserve the biggest share. I dont recall democrats fighting against the republicans when ALL those regulations were in place. They all kinda went along to get along and by the way, they all got rich and fat.