It's Obama's Fault

by Steve

It's a sign of how far the Democratic Party and its supposed leader have fallen from principle that we're expected to support a defective financial reform bill. Sure, I can be comforted somewhat by Paul Krugman's support for the bill Chris Dodd is bragging about, yet Krugman knows better than anyone that this bill is a pile of crap because it fails two simple but key tests:

1. This bill will not stop 2006-2008 from happening again.

2. This bill does not restore Glass-Steagall.

Enough said.

This bill will now go to conference committee, where congressional Democrats will let the bankers' lobby water it down some more, specifically by allowing the Big Banks and the Obama administration to kill the derivatives language in the Senate bill. Yes, you read that correctly: Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, and Barack Obama support stripping the derivatives language from the Senate bill, so you can count on the final product being even worse than the insufficient mess it is now.

No Glass-Steagall; no protection from it all happening again. And our own Democratic president is still carrying water for Wall Street and the banks. No wonder many voters can't tell the difference anymore.

There was a historic opportunity here to prevent a predatory Wall Street from savaging Main Street, and yet Barack Obama couldn't be bothered. Simply put, when (not if) it happens again, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party will be to blame.