As Sen. Franken (D-MN) took a bold stand on healthcare reform, he's doing the same thing on reforming Wall Street. He gave a speech on the Senate floor outlining the case for reform.
Today, as we debate Wall Street reform, we continue that fight to end the stranglehold that big banks have on our economy, and by extension, on the every day life of the American people.
Over the past year and a half, we saw in stark relief the devastating impact that Wall Street can have on our economy when it is left to its own devices. Fueled by unbridled greed, a love of risk-well, of risking other people's money-and an obsession with profit at all costs, banks bought up toxic mortgages by the thousands, driving the subprime lending market in the process. Credit rating agencies, conveniently funded by the same institutions they were rating -- that's a bad idea -- they gave the resulting securities their highest, AAA rating-and the initial ingredients of the financial crisis were born. And incidentally, today, Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that 93 percent of these AAA-rated subprime mortgage-backed securities have since been downgraded to junk status.
And it ends taxpayer bailouts by forcing banks to pony up $50 billion to pay for their own funeral if they fail. This is not a taxpayer-funded bailout. And let me tell you why. First, it's not a bailout-the bank would get liquidated. Secondly, it's not taxpayer funded-because taxpayers don't fund it. The banks do. I really don't know how to make this any clearer to my colleagues on the other side.
Let me be clear: we can't afford NOT to pass this bill. Americans are demanding that we act to hold Wall Street accountable. Without further protections, it would be easy to have another crisis like the one we have just been through.
Yet tonight, despite the urgency and importance of this bill, my colleagues across the aisle are filibustering our effort to reform Wall Street. And not just the bill itself-they've blocked us from even starting debate on the bill by filibustering the motion to proceed. They have done this despite the fact that many of them actually agree with substantial portions of the bill-because they want to stop government from actually being able to accomplish anything.
