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May 21, 2010 in Nation/World
Split Senate passes financial overhaul bill
Reconciling with House version could get contentious
WASHINGTON – The Senate Thursday approved the most sweeping rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression, a milestone in President Barack Obama’s drive to expand government oversight and safeguard against another crisis like the Wall Street meltdown of 2008.
The 59-39 vote was mostly along party lines: Four Republicans joined all but two Democrats in supporting the legislation.
Obama applauded as the Senate neared the end of its three-week debate on a top administration priority.
“Our goal is not to punish the banks but to protect the larger economy and the American people from the kind of upheavals that we’ve seen in the past few years,” Obama said. “And today’s action was a major step forward in achieving that goal.”
An exultant Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was less diplomatic.
“When this bill becomes law, the joyride on Wall Street will come to a screeching halt,” Reid said.
Most Republicans opposed the legislation because they believed it went too far in expanding government oversight of the economy and not far enough in ending the possibility of future government bailouts.
“In my opinion, it’s an overreach,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., one of a handful of Republicans who spent weeks working with Democrats to craft a bipartisan compromise, only to vote against it in the end. “We could have made it better. We didn’t.”
The legislation would establish a new bureau within the Federal Reserve to protect consumers in the financial marketplace; impose tough regulations on complex financial derivatives; grant shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive compensation; and give the government authority to seize and dismantle teetering firms whose failure would pose a danger to the economy.
The House in December passed its version of the bill, which is in some respects more industry-friendly than the Senate’s – a reflection, in part, of the intensification of anti-Wall Street sentiment in the last six months. Those differences will have to be resolved in House-Senate negotiations Democrats hope to wrap up in a matter of weeks.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., predicted the final bill will be written, passed and sent to Obama to sign by the Fourth of July.
“There’s a need for speed,” Frank said in a CNBC interview.
Still, the final negotiations will likely inspire fierce lobbying by financial, business and consumer interests. The Senate, for example, skirted a vote on an amendment that had been included in the House bill to exempt car dealers from the new consumer protection agency.
Car dealers are still pressing for senators to back a nonbinding motion supporting their cause, which is expected to come to a vote Monday.
The legislation cleared the last major hurdle earlier in the day, when the Senate voted 60-40 to cut off debate. Three Republicans – Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – joined Democrats to vote to end the filibuster.
Sens. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Maria Cantwell of Washington were the only Democrats to oppose ending debate because they wanted more time to consider amendments that would toughen the bill’s new regulation, including a push to restore a prohibition on commercial banks doing investment banking.
In the vote on final passage, one other Republican – Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa – joined the majority. Two Democratic senators – Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania – were absent. Although it took 60 votes to break the filibuster, only 51 were needed to pass the bill.
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republicans were especially critical of the bill’s new consumer bureau, which they said was an unnecessary expansion of government power that will impose onerous new regulations on small businesses that had no role in the financial crisis.
“It uses this crisis as yet another opportunity to expand the cost and size and reach of government,” McConnell said. “It punishes Main Street for the sins of Wall Street.”
And Republicans were particularly upset the bill does not address the futures of mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were seized by regulators in 2008 and have received a total of $126 billion in bailouts so far.
Stocks plummet as outlook in Europe dims 
liarsinnews on May 21 at 6:54 a.m.
Its the golden rule. Those who have the gold will rule. Obama did it to us again. Obama surely wouldn`t dare blame Bush for the sea of red ink on Wall Street the past few sessions.
JBlim on May 21 at 7:31 a.m.
Most are blaming Greece and the Euro crisis, dick. Is that Obama’s fault too?
misjustice on May 21 at 8:06 a.m.
Yes, JBlim, it is ALL the scary black man’s fault…he was supposed to fix in less than 2 years what Boy George took 8 years to ruin…
The global market decline happened prior to the scary black man taking over, but it is STILL his fault.
liarsinnews on May 21 at 8:17 a.m.
JBlim, its time you make your usual comment saying its all Bush`s fault. If you think Obama is doing a good job regarding the recession with his reckless spending of taxpayer bail money, I`m afraid you are in the minority. I usually don`t believe the close call scientific polls but Obama`s numbers lately are over-welling and at least show a semblance of truth about what Americans feel, i.e. their mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore.
Spokane_Citizen on May 21 at 10:37 a.m.
Actually Dick, at your age I suspect you get most of your human contact via talk radio and Fox news. I’m ‘out and about’ and I hardly get the feeling that most people are ‘mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore’. Calm down, or you’re likely to have a brain hemorrhage.
spokanada on May 21 at 12:38 p.m.
I know it was a year and a half ago but didn’t bush start the first round of bailouts?
remymartin on May 21 at 12:59 p.m.
Thanks, Dick Adams. Damn right, we listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and watch Fox News and am not ashamed to say so. You can run us down all you want (and I know you will), but that is the only way we can find out the truth about all of the socialists and progressives and communists he inserts in his administration that want to redistribute the wealth in this country. As long as obama continues to do what he does best, tax us more and spend our hard earned money, you ain’t seen nothin yet. Yeah, we’re mad.
Spokane_Citizen on May 21 at 2:34 p.m.
It’s comforting to know that remymartin and Dick are usually asleep by 4 PM in the afternoon….what both of them need is more bran fiber…being so ‘bound up’ is a recipe for crabbiness.
misjustice on May 21 at 4:24 p.m.
Ha, ha, ha, you Becker Heads outing yourselves is truly rich! You’re ‘mad’ alright; like a rabid dog kind of ‘mad’…where were you Becker Heads when boy george was trashing the Constitution and ‘leading’ us into an illegal war? You were DREADFULLY SILENT!
JBlim on May 21 at 5:45 p.m.
It’s funny when Bush screwed up his minions would say “Now is not the time to play the blame game.” It so happens, dick, that Bush did screw everything up. It’s not just me, only Nixon beat out W according to this Rasmussen Reports poll taken June 13–24 of 2007 by 1 point. I think W was worse than Nixon, but that’s just me.
1. George Washington (94% favorable, 2% unfavorable)
2. Abraham Lincoln (92% favorable, 4% unfavorable)
3. Thomas Jefferson (89% favorable, 4% unfavorable)
4. Theodore Roosevelt (84% favorable, 8% unfavorable)
5. Franklin D. Roosevelt (81% favorable, 12% unfavorable)
6. John F. Kennedy (80% favorable, 13% unfavorable)
7. John Adams (74% favorable, 9% unfavorable)
8. James Madison (73% favorable, 8% unfavorable)
9. Ronald Reagan (72% favorable, 22% unfavorable)
10. Dwight Eisenhower (72% favorable, 15% unfavorable)
11. Harry Truman (70% favorable, 14% unfavorable)
12. Andrew Jackson (69% favorable, 14% unfavorable)
13. Gerald Ford (62% favorable, 26% unfavorable)
14. John Quincy Adams (59% favorable, 7% unfavorable)
15. Ulysses S. Grant (58% favorable, 24% unfavorable)
16. George H.W. Bush (57% favorable, 41% unfavorable)
17. Jimmy Carter (57% favorable, 34% unfavorable)
18. William Taft (57% favorable, 15% unfavorable)
19. Woodrow Wilson (56% favorable, 19% unfavorable)
20. Bill Clinton (55% favorable, 41% unfavorable)
21. James Monroe (49% favorable, 10% unfavorable)
22. Herbert Hoover (48% favorable, 34% unfavorable)
23. Lyndon B. Johnson (45% favorable, 42% unfavorable)
24. Andrew Johnson (45% favorable, 26% unfavorable)
25. Chester Arthur (43% favorable, 17% unfavorable)
26. James A. Garfield (42% favorable, 16% unfavorable)
27. William McKinley (42% favorable, 24% unfavorable)
28. George W. Bush (41% favorable, 59% unfavorable)
29. Grover Cleveland (40% favorable, 26% unfavorable)
30. Calvin Coolidge (38% favorable, 31% unfavorable)
31. Rutherford B. Hayes (38% favorable, 19% unfavorable)
32. Richard Nixon (32% favorable, 60% unfavorable)
33. Benjamin Harrison (30% favorable, 35% unfavorable)
34. Warren Harding (29% favorable, 33% unfavorable)
35. James Buchanan (28% favorable, 32% unfavorable)
36. James Polk (27% favorable, 21% unfavorable)
37. Zachary Taylor (26% favorable, 18% unfavorable)
38. Martin Van Buren (23% favorable, 19% unfavorable)
39. William Harrison (21% favorable, 16% unfavorable)
40. Franklin Pierce (17% favorable, 25% unfavorable)
41. Millard Fillmore (17% favorable, 25% unfavorable)
42. John Tyler (9% favorable, 15% unfavorable)
Maybe you’ll like the Quinnipiac University poll, taken May 23–30, 2006, which asked 1,534 registered American voters to pick the worst U.S. President of the last 61 years:
1. George W. Bush (34%)
2. Richard Nixon (17%)
3. Bill Clinton (16%)
4. Jimmy Carter (13%)
5. Don’t Know/No Answer (5%)
6. Lyndon Johnson (4%)
7. George H. W. Bush (3%)
8. Ronald Reagan (3%)
9. Gerald Ford (2%)
10. Harry Truman (1%)
11. John Kennedy (1%)
12. Dwight Eisenhower (<1%)
Yeah, I’m way out of line dick … .
liarsinnews on May 21 at 11:36 p.m.
I`m amused by all the nameless characters who seem to be afraid to use their real name and hide behind stuff like a blindfolded justice figure. I`d also wager most of the characters who want something for nothing and back Obama, fall in the 47% who do not pay one red dime in federal income tax. I believe everyone should pay something. I do!!
JBlim on May 22 at 1:17 p.m.
dick says:
“I believe everyone should pay something.”
Well that’s a nice thought, dick. How much should someone who is unemployed pay? How much should a quadriplegic pay? Maybe we should get the IRS out there and take away their wheelchairs. We could take in a lot of tax revenues by demanding a cut out of street corner beggars’ income too. With brilliant thoughts like that, dick, you should get a job at the IRS.
BTW, why are you hiding behind that faceless avatar? Get your face on there and put your mug where your mouth is.
misjustice on May 22 at 1:48 p.m.
Actually, dick, it’s major corporations (your gods) that usually do not pay taxes…
“With corporate tax receipts at 20-year low, the GAO takes a look through the books and finds 94% of all U.S. companies paid less than 5% — and 61% paid nothing at all.”
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P80242.asp
“Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/business/13tax.html
“The decline in the taxes that corporations actually pay is also suggested by the decline in the relative share these taxes contribute to the federal budget. According to an April report issued by the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI), in the 1950s corporate taxes represented one quarter of all federal revenue. Since 2000, this figure has fallen to about one tenth. The resulting shortfall has largely been made up through payroll taxes on US workers, according to the EPI.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/ctax-a15.shtml
There are many more stories/reports similar to those posted…dick…
And I’m not ‘hiding’ behind anything any more than you are…many posters do not use their real names, dick…(if that is even your name) because of blog bullies that would lash out or be vindictive over a difference of opinions…it never ceases to amaze me how intolerant our nation has become…there is no longer any room for differing views; seems a lot like Taliban ideology!