Finally, another campaign promise kept. For a while there, I didn’t think that congress had the “stones” to take on Wall Street but I am quite happy to see that I was wrong. The bill may not be as strong as some want but it is a wonderful first step toward attempting to make sure that what happened to the economy does not ever happen again. Well that is until a group of “highly educated extraterrestrials” get in congress and decide to take the gloves off again. But until that happens, lets reveal in the fact that Washington really does belong to the voters and not the lobbyists.
“One year in the making, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street rules forged in the aftermath of a financial crisis cleared congressional negotiations early Friday and headed to the House and Senate for final votes.” “Lawmakers hope to have a bill on President Barack Obama’s desk by July 4.” “The legislation, the most ambitious rewrite of financial regulations since the Great Depression, touches on an exhaustive range of financial transactions, from a debit card swipe at a supermarket to the most complex securities deals cut in downtown Manhattan.” “Eager to avoid a recurrence of the 2008 financial meltdown, lawmakers set up a warning system for financial risks, created a powerful consumer financial protection bureau to police lending, forced large failing firms to liquidate and set new rules for financial instruments that have been largely unregulated.” “It is reassuring to know that when public opinion gets engaged it will win,” said Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House-Senate panel that merged House and Senate bills into one piece of legislation.” “To pay for the costs of the bill, negotiators agreed to assess a fee on banks with assets of more than $50 billion and hedge funds of more than $10 billion in assets to raise $19 billion over 10 years.” “Shortly after 5 a.m., Rep. Paul Kanjorsky, D-Pa., moved to officially name the legislation the Dodd-Frank bill.” “Congress has shown that America is ready to lead by example,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.” (Kuhnhenn, Jim; 6/25/2010, Associated Press, House, Senate lawmakers finalize deal on bank bill, Retrieved from [email protected]).
Of course it goes without saying that there will be those voices out there decrying something not right about this bill basically because it was promised by this president and delivered by a few brave souls in both houses of congress. I asked that when those voices start to become loud enough that someone asks them to come up with their own bill to combat this problem and then we will have something tangible to compare instead of just a bunch of empty rhetoric. This bill will now begin the healing of Main Street and there is where the real people reside.
