Some emphasis mine.
A GOP Financial Reform Bellwether
Posted by ADAM SORENSEN Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Bit by bit, bipartisan negotiations in the Senate over financial regulatory reform have broken down. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee split with the Democratic Chairman, Chris Dodd in February. Bob Corker filled the gap, stepping in to try to hammer out a compromise on an issue in which both parties see the potential for good policy and good politics. But wary of delays after a bitter health care fight, Democrats voted the bill out of committee in March with no Republican support, and now are looking to open up the legislation to amendments and debate on the Senate floor. As recently as last month, Republican leadership was open to a deal.
In a floor speech this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threw cold water on the prospects of detente, establishing a hard line of attack against the Dodd bill, and indelibly marking the party line:
"We must not pass the financial reform bill that's about to hit the floor."The crux of his criticism is that the bill "institutionalizes... taxpayer-funded bailouts of Wall Street banks." He knocked the expansion of power at the Fed and Treasury, while sounding the alarm on Wall Street accountability.
If the outline of his speech sounds familiar, it's because it is the exact argument pollster Frank Luntz urged Republicans to make earlier this year in a widely publicized memo. Compare the excerpts below (emphasis mine):
Luntz: "The single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the
Big Bank Bailout."
McConnell: "We cannot allow endless taxpayer-funded
bailouts for big Wall Street banks. And that's why we must not pass the financial reform bill that's about to hit the floor."
Luntz: "Taxpayers should not be held responsible for the
failure of big business any longer.
If a business is going to fail, not matter how big, let it fail."McConnell: ("The Dodd bill) gives the government a new backdoor mechanism for propping up
failing or failed institutions.... We won't solve this problem until the
biggest banks are allowed to fail."Luntz: "Government policies
caused the bubble and its ultimate crash.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve, and the Community Reinvestment Act all had a role in the catastrophe. The government inflated economic
bubbles with easy credit policies."
McConnell: “It also directs the
Fed to oversee 35 to 50 of the biggest firms, replicating on an even larger scale the same distortions that plagued the housing market and
helped trigger a massive bubble we'll be suffering from for years. If you thought
Fannie and Freddie were dangerous, how about 35 to 50 of them?"
more...
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/04/13/a-gop-financial-reform-bellwether/Luntz memo on 'The Language of Financial Reform':
http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/languageoffinancialreform.pdf