A Year Later, Where's The GOP Reform Plan?

by Deacon Blues

We heard earlier today that the Senate GOP would block the financial reform bill despite widespread public support for the effort, and would offer their own proposal.

Now we find out that the Senate GOP worked with DINO Ben Nelson to block the bill today, but has resisted showing the public their supposed alternative. In fact, the GOP claims they have been working on their version from Day One, but still refuses to show anyone what it is.

"We have been drafting an alternative approach since the very beginning," said one staff member. "It may come to the point where Republicans decide, 'Let's just put out specifically what we're for.' That decision hasn't been made yet."

Work on this bill has been going on since early 2009, and the GOP hasn't made a decision to engage yet? Yet they complain about the Democrats' plans without having the guts to go on the record and show Main Street what they would do differently.

Aides declined to talk in depth about how a Republican alternative bill would differ from the Dodd legislation, but they said it almost certainly would include language to overhaul the massive government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

You've had a year guys. Where's the beef? Or do you even have a plan?

Notice in the Washington Post story that the Senate GOP staffers are complaining that their bosses haven't included them in the negotiations.

"We need to be in a room, at the staff level, nailing down the language, and that's not happening," said one Shelby staff member. "They stopped talking to us."

Maybe there's a reason why your bosses have excluded you from the negotiations. You are pushing unpopular dogmatic objections that the senators know would kill them. But then the staff aren't on the ballot, are they?

Perhaps the GOP senators know that after Goldman Sachs gets roasted tomorrow for intentionally defrauding uninformed investors, the public will be even more pissed.