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.