OBAMA CRANKS UP POPULIST RHETORIC - Democratic Underground

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Sat Dec-26-09 08:41 PM
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OBAMA CRANKS UP POPULIST RHETORIC

Edited on Sat Dec-26-09 10:16 PM by proud patriot

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot Democratic Underground)

DISPATCHES
OBAMA CRANKS UP POPULIST RHETORIC

As Barack Obama’s job approval rating dips below 50% in several polls, he has started to crank up the populist rhetoric against reckless “fat cat bankers” and Republicans who have allied with financial industry lobbyists to block meaningful financial reform. But while the Obama administration talks about limiting executive compensation and adjusting lending standards to help small businesses, the too-big-to-fail banks are recording profits again and paying back their bailouts. Now, under the antiquated rules of the Senate that require 60 votes to pass “Go,” all the financiers need to do is keep Sen. Joe Lieberman, and perhaps a couple other Democratic senators, in their pocket to stop the Senate from enacting substantial reforms.

The House approved a financial reform bill (12/11) that would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers from abusive lending practices but it would not allow bankruptcy judges to restructure mortgage payments. The bill, steered by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), passed on a 223-202 vote, as 27 Dems voted with the GOP against the bill. Republicans objected to a fee on financial companies that would generate a $150 bln fund to cover the costs of dissolving companies that run into financial troubles. Conservative Dems and Repubs failed, 223-208, in an attempt to replace the Consumer Financial Protection Agency with a council made up of existing regulators. But the House rejected an effort to allow bankruptcy judges to “cramdown” mortgage terms to help troubled homeowners keep their houses. Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is preparing his own sweeping financial reform bill that would, among other things, strip the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve of supervisory powers and give them to a new banking super-regulator. He is still developing that bill, which the Banking Committee is expected to consider next year.

Obama tried to get Wall Street bankers together in the White House on 12/14, only to find that Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, John Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley, and Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup, opted to participate by speakerphone because fog delayed commercial flights into Washington, D.C. Now that Citigroup has repaid $20 bln in bailout money and Wells Fargo has announced it will return the $25 bln it got last year, Andrew Ross Sorkin noted in the New York Times (12/15), “whatever leverage Washington had over the financial services industry seems to be quickly eroding.” Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan made it to the White House but, Sorkin wrote, “inevitably public perception will issue its harsh ruling, and it goes something like this: If the meeting were really that important to Mr. Blankfein, Mr. Mack and Mr. Parsons, they would have found a way to get there.” Sorkin noted that the bankers all made it to Washington last year when they were seeking the bailouts.

Obama said the bankers received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers and now he expected an extraordinary commitment from the bankers to help rebuild the economy. “The way I see it, having recovered with the help of the American government and the American taxpayers, our banks now have a greater obligation to the goal of a wider recovery, a more stable system, and more broadly shared prosperity,” he said.

GO OVER THERE AND SEE:

http://www.populist.com/10.1.dispatches.htmlFrom The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2010

or...

http://progressivepopulist.blogspot.com/2009/12/selections-from-january-1-15-2010-issue.html