Wall Street reform passed Congress today, with three Republicans voting “yes,” among them Scott Brown of Massachusetts. But Brown’s vote came with a high price tag: he insisted on both hammering ordinary citizens with new taxes, instead of imposing them on the financial behemoths that jeopardize our economic stability. And he punched an enormous loophole [...]
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Good news: The Senate just secured 60 votes to proceed on Wall Street reform, clearing the way for the legislation’s final passage today or Saturday. The legislation garnered the votes of every Democrat except Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who argued that the bill was too weak to support. Every Republican opposed the bill, except Sens. [...]
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It happened again today. The Washington Post says the Democrats lost in the US Senate because they were “unable to muster the 60 votes needed.” As a result, states won’t get help paying for Medicaid, long term unemployed won’t get relief, and hedge fund managers will continue to enjoy their $35 billion loophole that could [...]
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Today is the big day: thousands of people will march on Wall Street this afternoon to protest big bank abuses. After watching Wall Street stack the economic deck against, well, just about everybody, it’s time for reform. Big Banks secured the most generous bailout in history back in 2008, and today they’re back to business [...]
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10:00 Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein won’t appear before Levin’s committee until this afternoon, but his written testimony is here: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=c5099cfc-f6f9-41cb-ad11-aac3dab82fe0 So is that of Goldman CFO David Viniar: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=96c2e744-76bb-42c0-8928-931e3cbc7314 And this Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=8f08ee0a-7c86-4ce7-b7d6-ba44e0c0cbec
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Last night, Senate Republicans proved beyond any doubt that when it comes to the economy, they stand with Wall Street and against everybody else. Joined by lone Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Republicans successfully filibustered the procedural technicality of opening debate on Wall Street reform. It’s an unmistakable ploy to kill the bill and collect [...]
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A Center for American Progress report this week chronicles just how obstructionist conservatives in the Senate continue to be as they use the filibuster to block reform efforts in the Senate. Scott Lilly elaborates on a trend that we began chronicling more than two years ago as conservatives announced that routine use of the filibuster [...]
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This is something people should know about. Every effort to reform financial regulations is blocked by Senate filibusters. Maybe now we know why. From last week: Republicans Chase Wall Street Donors Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio made a pitch to Democratic contributor James Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of J.P. [...]
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The Republican strategy of obstruction is working. The latest Pew poll shows Congressional Favorability Falls to 24-Year Low Former Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss, didn’t hide his goals. “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail…and so far it’s working for us,” he told Roll Call in April of 2007. We call the [...]
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A stubborn conservative minority in the U.S. Senate in December stood in the way of sensible energy legislation that would shift tax breaks away from Big Oil, which doesn’t need them, and toward renewable energy companies that do. All indications are they would do it again if the energy bill that passed the House by [...]
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