Last month the DFL of SD62 along with the DFLs of SD61, SD60, and the DFL Senior Caucus hosted a forum on financial reform with Rep. Keith Ellison. The video has been posted, so there's a second chance for those who missed it.
The SD62 DFL, working with the SD60 and SD61 DFLs, and the DFL Senior Caucus, is presenting a forum on financial reform on June 2nd 7-9 PM at Powderhorn Park, 3400 15th Ave S.
Do you feel like when it comes to the banking crisis, the mortgage crisis, the causes of the recession, the reasons for bailing out Wall Street, etc., most of what you hear is a mix of confusing acronyms and jargon? Confusing sure, but the biggest lie in finance is you can't understand it. The plan is to have the audience leave the forum understanding much, and feeling confident they can figure out the rest --- and that they can explain it when talking to voters during campaign season. We'll talk about the bills before Congress, how the crisis happened, the changes that need to happen to avoid another one, and how the changes affect us.
Other panelists include:
Prentiss Cox - U of M Law Professor, former MN Assistant Attorney General and manager of the Consumer Enforcement Division. He was the principal author and editor of Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Trade Practices in Minnesota (M.S.B.A. 2007 and 2d Ed. 2009)
Amber Hawkins - Assistant County Attorney at the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, formerly Attorney with the Home Ownership Protection Project at the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis.
Ron Elwood - A consumer advocate, and advocate for the rights of low-income citizens. He has 20 years of experience in state, county and city government, and 10 years experience as a legal advocate for the poor, specializing in consumer, utility and housing issues.
Nick Slade - Private Attorney specializing in consumer issues. Formerly attorney with the Public Defenders Office.
Click "there's more" to vote in the poll. If you don't understand the questions, you should come!
Today we learn that the first part of the Republican strategy to defeat the much-needed financial services regulatory reform is to say that it is the opposite of what it actually is. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), echoing comments he made Tuesday, said the bill amounts to an "endless taxpayer bailout for Wall Street banks."
I'm not sure exactly why the Republican leadership wants to protect the status quo and block Wall Street reform, but I'm betting it has a lot more to do with politics than any policy that will actually help consumers and their constituents. It's helpful to remember that at the beginning of the health care debate, the GOP, of course, voted against even debating the subject in the Senate.
The 60-39 vote (not a vote to spare) took place back before Thanksgiving last year, and cleared the way for a bruising, full-scale public discussion on extending coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, cracking down on insurance company practices that denied or diluted benefits and curtailing the growth of spending on medical care nationally. Instead of moving forward with an honest debate to meet these objectives, all we heard Republican leadership was "death panels," "government takeover," and "huge tax increases,".
Now while it's entirely legitimate to debate how effect the new health care law will be, no one can honestly argue that the health care law was about extending coverage, reigning in the insurance industry, and dealing with costs, premiums or otherwise. You know, what President Obama promised in his campaign and set out to do once in office.
So back the financial reform in the Senate. The GOP is setting it up the same way. First, demonize the legislation to set up a voting block to even debate the merits. Then, it will be scream that they are on the side of the everyday people while actually protecting a big special interest of their party. However, this time I don't think they'll get as much traction as they did on health care.
Think about it. The bailouts "were about as popular as a root canal," as the President aptly put it in his State of the Union Address. Lines will have to be drawn. Either you're for protecting predatory Wall Street practices, or you're not. Republicans know full well that Americans have a sense of getting screwed by the system, as the Tea Party has loudly pointed out (although I'm not convinced they are entirely victimized in America), and they're going to jump out in front saying that they are for them, and not the Banksters.
However, like with health insurance reform, the facts speak otherwise, which is why for the Party of Hell No this is another loosing political bet. While far from perfect the 1,336 page financial reform bill put forth by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, (D-Conn), is large in scope and reach in regulating the financial services industry.
The bill proposed would tighten oversight of derivatives markets and protect consumers from abusive mortgages among other restraints, set up a consumer protection agency and overhaul the powers of the Federal Reserve as a way to police Wall Street and set up procedures for shutting down banks that are "too big to fail."
I like these debunkings to be a bit more challenging than this one turned out to be, but this is a fake point conservatives keep raising to get the public more distrustful of government than of Wall Street, and financial reform is in progress now. The correct answer is Fannie and Freddie weren't run by the government when they played their part in the housing bubble and nearly collapsed. They were private corporations which would have gone under and perhaps brought down the economy with them had the government not intervened to take them over.
Since the financial crisis hit just a year and a half ago, you would think anyone in Congress would be aware they were collapsing before the government jumped in. It's so indisputable that even Michele Bachmann admits they were private when they collapsed. If that doesn't convince a conservative, I don't know what does. Well, maybe if she was quoted on Fox instead of CBS.
But why are people so ready to believe these corporations were run by the government?
This is a conservative myth you'll likely be hearing more of now that financial reform is at the top of the congressional agenda. Conservatives claim the collapse of mortgage securitizers Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association, FNM)and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp, FRE) was a result of being run by the government. They use Freddie and Fannie as an example of what happens when the government runs, well, anything, but especially anything financial.
For example, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said Sunday on Meet The Press, "The legacy for student loans is going to be terrible because, in this bill, the federal government takes over the student loan program; and if you think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did a good job with housings, wait till the government runs student loans, $9 billion taken out of the student loan program to pay for health care."
He tossed out Fannie and Freddie like it was common knowledge, hoping no one would question it. Well, I at least question it. So what's wrong with this story?
D***, after all that I missed one. In those two long (they seemed long when I was writing them anyway) posts I wrote about the NRSC survey I received and what it suggested about themes the Republicans are considering for this year's election, I missed a whopper. Even though I was writing about how some themes were deceptive, and I wrote those "fun with debunking" things, I only today stumbled upon the knowledge that I got fooled. Maybe they thought if they threw enough at me they could slip one by, and well done GOP!
The question is, "Do you support creation of an independent panel like the 9-11 Commission to investigate the mortgage crisis and other factors that contributed to the economic crisis in our nation?" Sounds like a reasonable idea, right? The Democrats had talked about another Pecora Commission. That should have clued me in, because guess what? There already is one, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. It holds its first hearing Thursday. How are Republicans going to make that work, even for dittoheads, when the news is full of the commission's report?
It's like demanding a 911 commission while Kean and Hamilton are meeting with Bush and Cheney. It's like calling for teabaggers to have a rally to listen to nonsense and claptrap. Next, I suggest the proprietors of MN Progressive Project start a project for progressives in Minnesota.
"That will tie up their staff in knots." -- Michele Bachmann, 12 December 2009
And with Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive, you know - KNOW - that's not the only outrageous stuff she spewed.
Like, this:
"That's literally what it felt like yesterday. It felt like I had mud on my face, blood and battle scars. It just felt awful."
"Then Barney Frank snuck through a bill that no one had even heard of before. Thirteen hundred pages long, it's the takeover of the financial services sector. And I know that this is hard to believe but this bill, in my opinion, is even worse that the government takeover of healthcare and worse than cap and trade."
"It is the worst bill because any financial transaction from writing a check to using a credit card - government is now in control, and the House passed it. It's the last vote that we took yesterday before I flew out of Washington D.C."
"That's right, not one Member of Congress read this bill, including me. And it isn't because for lack of not wanting to, or being too stupid to read the bill. It is impossible, because we didn't even hear about it until Tuesday and it isn't like we don't have a lot of other things to do. They're ramming bills through right now. It's almost like you'd think they want to destroy the country."
"It will destroy a million jobs at minimum, this one section of the bill dealing with derivatives, it will destroy at least a million. It's a massive government takeover of the economy. It creates an unelected Czar. This Czar has the power to set wages and set the wages of a bank teller in Anoka, Minnesota."
"They will choose the most radical leftist option every time and then they'll twist and break arms to get what they want to get."
And while those comments by Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive are certainly outrageous, the most outrageous - IMNSO - is a Congresswoman advocating that supporters interfere with the efficient operation of fellow elected official's staff. That quote, once again:
"That will tie up their staff in knots." -- Michele Bachmann, 12 December 2009
GOPers are always claiming "government doesn't work" - and here Bachmann is, advocating that her supporters ensure it can't.
That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is your tax dollars -- NOT at work.
(Finally, some good news. Thanks, Eric - promoted by The Big E)
There are many people on the left feeling like every thing has gone to crap since we celebrated Obama's inauguration. The approval ratings of Obama and Congress are lousy, in no small part because of disgruntled Democrats who feel Obama has followed Bush's policies on the wars and civil liberties. Allegedly Democratic senators are on the point of killing health care reform, conservatives are resurgent and feeling quite cocky about their prospects for next year. At the state level, Pawlenty is so far getting away with unallotment and somehow still has about half on Minnesotans liking him.
However, some things have gone well over the last year, and even some disappointments have their mitigations. Suspect if you want that I'm keeping the glass half full by pouring a bucket into a bottomless glass, but consider a few things. All right, a bunch of things, which is why this is just part 1 instead of the whole thing. It was getting rather long for a blog, but let's get started:
I'm going to jump ahead of the obvious criticism of that headline and acknowledge it's premature. We don't yet know how the health care debate will come out. I'm going to expound on the lessons learned anyway for two reasons, only the weaker of which is that at this point, we've seen enough to be pretty sure what some of the lessons will be. With the acknowledgment that this assertion is arguable, I'm confident that most of what I say will hold up when a bill is passed and when some time has passed.
However, the second reason is not arguable at all: the legislative fights to which these lessons must be applied are starting already. The state legislature goes into its non-budgetary session in January, where it will be trying to reverse some of Pawlenty's unallotments, especially GAMC. There will also be the bonding bill which is always contentious, at least with Gov. Wounded Deer still in office. Congress is already working on financial reform and global warming legislation, the corporate lobbyists have already chosen their targets, and conservatives are certain to use the same tactics they've been using to obstruct health care, the stimulus, and pretty much everything. That's why the heading says "apply" instead of "learn". What particularly worries me is I see the same mistakes being made at this early stage.
The SD62 DFL, working with the SD60 and SD61 DFLs, and the DFL Senior Caucus, is presenting a forum on financial reform on June 2nd 7-9 PM at Powderhorn Park, 3400 15th Ave S.
