Stengthened Senate Liberals Fighting Lobbyists, GOP on Financial Reform In These Times
Republicans offered a weaker alternative to consumer protection measures that are central to President Barack Obama's Wall Street regulation plan, opening a new front Wednesday in the Senate debate over how to rein in financial institutions.
The Senate pivoted straight into that confrontation after reaching a compromise on how to dismantle large failing firms. In that agreement, senators voted 93-5 to eliminate a contentious $50 billion fund that would have been used to pay for a firm's liquidation...
The Republican plan would limit the enforcement power of a proposed consumer protection bureau and make its rules subject to approval by a top banking regulator.
The White House was quick to object. Spokeswoman Amy Brundage called the Republican proposal "nothing more than a lobbyist-influenced defense of the status quo and an attempt to water down the consumer protections" in the bill.
"We will not accept this," Brundage said.
The GOP plan would create a division of consumer protection within the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to oversee nonbank mortgage companies and write consumer regulations. The FDIC would have to sign off on those rules.
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Examiner.comHealth Care Reform Series: A history of health in the US - Part 2Examiner.comThis could not be more clear than the recent “mortgage meltdown,” which effectively took down corporate insurance giants like AIG, which leveraged the huge and more »
