'FrankenDodd' (H/T Glenn Beck)
“It’s as if Tony Hayward of BP were allowed to write new rules on deep water drilling,” the WSJ editors analogize in “Triumph of the Regulators.” Above, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, chief architects of the “sweeping” financial “reform” bill careening through the halls of Congress, beam at the thought of the latest bit of legislative handiwork they are preparing to impose on the American people. Associated Press photo.
By Sissy Willis of sisu
via Riehl World View
Scott Brown “has listened to his constituents,” an aide in our junior Senator’s office just told us, and will definitely vote “no” on the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill should it come to the floor. ABC explains why that may not happen soon:
The Senate was expected to vote on the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill this week, giving the President the opportunity to sign the most sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations since the Great Depression before Congress’s July 4 recess.
But …
Without Robert Byrd — or a Democratic replacement to fill Byrd’s seat — they may not have the votes to pass it. On the critical procedural vote that enabled the bill to pass the Senate on May 20, Democrats prevailed 60-40. Senator Byrd’s vote was essential; the bill had exactly the number of votes needed to pass.
And there’s this: Democrats seem to have lost another vote. Sen. Scott Brown, one of just four Republicans in the Senate who voted for the Senate’s version of the bill, is now suggesting he may oppose it because it now includes $18 billion in taxes and fees.
“I’ve said repeatedly that I cannot support any bill that raises taxes,” Brown had told reporters Friday, raising our hopes:
While I’m still reviewing the bill’s details, my fear is that these costs would be passed onto consumers in the form of higher bank, ATM and credit card fees and put a strain on lending at the worst possible time for our economy.
Nor was he amused that $18 billion in new assessments and fees had been “added in the wee hours of the morning by the conference committee.” Our Mr. Brown, now outpolling senior Senator Kerry and President Obama here in Massachusetts, is proving to be a quick study in the ways of Washington…Meanwhile, Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd blithely acknowledged that “No one will know until this is actually in place how it works.” As an eye-rolling WSJ explains, the system will be built “not around clear parameters of what institutions can and cannot do, but instead entirely on regulator discretion“…
…The Federal Reserve, which promoted the housing mania and failed utterly in its core mission of monitoring Citigroup, will now have more power to regulate more financial institutions and more ability to dictate the allocation of credit …
Read the whole thing at Riehl World View.
