The Real Progressive

I didn't think that they were that stupid but apparently they are.  The SAME day that the SEC goes after Goldman Sachs for fraud charges, the GOP decided to drink the greedy Wall Street, fat cat, I-would-sooner-sell- my-own-mother-than-help-the-little-guy Kool-Aid.

A letter signed by all 41 Republican Senators indicated that they would not support the  Democrat plan to reign in Wall Street and prevent another financial crisis.

You remember the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 don't you?  That was when a poorly regulated and largely unregulated Wall Street engaged in some banking hi-jinks which finally went up in smoke.   They were broke. Big Wall Street firms were declared too big to fail because if they did, they would pull down the entire country and send us into another Great Depression.  We had to go into our taxpayer pockets and give them money to repair the ship after they ran it into an iceberg.

Remember how angry we were at having to bail out Wall Street while we could see them apologetically dining on champagne and caviar, while giving themselves huge bonuses.  After all,  they were the most talented people in the banking business.

We bailed them out not to save them, but to save America.  And they knew it.  Wall Street made some noise about how they agreed that the financial system needed to reformed to prevent us from flirting with financial ruin again.  But they were lying.  They took that government money, paid themselves off, stopped making loans to people on Main Street (the purpose of getting the government bailout) and started doing what they do best: protect their pockets.  Wall Street firms poured lobbying money into Congress.  Data forms filed with Congress reviled that lobbying expenditures were up 12% in 2009  to $29.8 million compared to 2008.  Most of the spending in 2009 came in the last three months as Congress moved forward on finance reform legislation. 


You say potato, I say government bailout.  In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) wrote "[w]e simply cannot ask the American taxpayer to continue to subsidize this "too big to fail" policy. We must ensure that Wall Street no longer believes or relies on Main Street to bail them out. Inaction is not an option."  The letter was co-signed by the entire remaining 40 Republican Senators. 

Apparently the story the Republicans are putting out is that the Democratic plan for finance reform will allow for more taxpayer bailouts.   It would be a good talking point and rally cry for the GOP if the bill did not explicitly say that it would NOT sanction more government bailouts of Wall Street.

 Tea Party  possible ally on finance reform.  The White House is working with Americans United for Change ("AUC"),a leading progressive group.  AUC is launching a new online web ad campaign specifically designed to target Tea Party activists. Ads are appearing on predominantly conservative websites.  They use behavioral targeting to ensure that the Tea Party and their sympathiers who are anti-government and anti-Wall Street get the real Democrat message.

AUC is hoping to get its ads on conservative sites such as Townhall.com, Biggovernment.com and  on Facebook pages populated by fans of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Tea Party groups. The ads accuse Republicans of  selling out Main Street to Wall Street executives to weaken finance reform legislation

"They're In The Pocket Of Big Banks," reads one online spot, with a picture of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) pasted below the text.

Recent polls say that the Tea Party wants to rein in Wall Street -- but Senate Republicans are doing their best to shield them with  weak and ineffective legislation.  Jeremy Funk, communications director at AUC believes that "[b]y highlighting this gaping chasm... we expect the potential political consequences of standing with the big banks will make a number of Republicans think twice about opposing financial reform."

By Michelle Loggins