That Washington
Wall Street Reform. Three Interpretations.
Congress passed the financial reform bill today as the House and Senate reconciled their separate versions. Washington's Sens. Murray and Cantwell both supported the bill as U.S. Sen. Harry Reid got the 60 votes he needed including three Republicans (Tea Partier Sen. Scott Brown among them.)
In a press release, Sen. Murray said:
Her announcement comes the day after a Dino Rossi press release condemned the bill for not remedying the "To Big To Fail" phenomenon in which Congress came to the rescue of behemoth banks like Goldman Sachs in 2008 and 2009, bailing them out with tax payer money.
"If Patty Murray didn’t like bailing out big banks with taxpayer money the first time, then why would she pass a bill which could protect "too big to fail" companies using taxpayer money?” Rossi asked in his press release.
A New York Times article yesterday kind-of, sort-of, almost supports Rossi's claim. Rossi's camp has latched onto a line in the article: "However, it appears there is enough wiggle room in the bill and elsewhere in the laws that the government will still be able to structure unique one-off solutions in any financial crisis. We just won’t know until the law is tested."
But According to Eli Zupnick, a spokesman in Senator Murray's office, the version of the bill passed today makes it absolutely impossible for congress to bail out banks with taxpayer money. In fact, Senator Murray spoke in favor of the amendment that forbid bailouts yesteday. Video here.
The actual language of the bill backs him up. in Sec. 214(a), it says
Sen. Cantwell isn't up for reelection this year (and so, she's not slugging it out in a political he said/she said with a GOP opponent), but she was definitely invested in declaring victory.
Cantwell issued a press release today emphasizing that her cause celebre—derivative regulation—which got short shrift in the original Senate version (she was one of two Democrats to vote No in May ), was included in the final product. At the PI, Joel Connelly noted her "victory lap."
But really, she didn't get everything she wanted. In February, Sen. Cantwell gave Josh her list of must-have reforms: absolute separation between commercial and investment banking (reenactment of the Depression-era Glass Steagall Act); a cap on bank size by market share; her successful derivatives regulation (i.e. forcing derivatives to be traded and regulated through a central clearinghouse); and stricter standards governing market speculation like limits on aggregate positions across markets.
So she only got two out of four. Her populist demands—capping a bank's market share and reenacting the Glass-Steagall—went down.
What's interesting is that while Cantwell eventually voted for the bill without those provisions, her original ally did not. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who cosponsored the Glass Steagall and market share provisions, was the lone Democrat to hold out when the Grapes of Wrath stuff didn't make the cut.
In a press release, Sen. Murray said:
"This bill is going to make sure that Washington state families and small business owners are protected from predatory Wall Street tactics. And it will guarantee that American taxpayers will never again be on the hook to bail out the big banks."
Her announcement comes the day after a Dino Rossi press release condemned the bill for not remedying the "To Big To Fail" phenomenon in which Congress came to the rescue of behemoth banks like Goldman Sachs in 2008 and 2009, bailing them out with tax payer money.
"If Patty Murray didn’t like bailing out big banks with taxpayer money the first time, then why would she pass a bill which could protect "too big to fail" companies using taxpayer money?” Rossi asked in his press release.
A New York Times article yesterday kind-of, sort-of, almost supports Rossi's claim. Rossi's camp has latched onto a line in the article: "However, it appears there is enough wiggle room in the bill and elsewhere in the laws that the government will still be able to structure unique one-off solutions in any financial crisis. We just won’t know until the law is tested."
But According to Eli Zupnick, a spokesman in Senator Murray's office, the version of the bill passed today makes it absolutely impossible for congress to bail out banks with taxpayer money. In fact, Senator Murray spoke in favor of the amendment that forbid bailouts yesteday. Video here.
The actual language of the bill backs him up. in Sec. 214(a), it says
"No taxpayer funds shall be used to prevent liquidation under this title," [liquidation is a process where shareholders in the company are forced to bear part of the company's losses] and it goes on to clarify: "Taxpayers shall bear no losses from the exercise of any authority under this title."
Sen. Cantwell isn't up for reelection this year (and so, she's not slugging it out in a political he said/she said with a GOP opponent), but she was definitely invested in declaring victory.
Cantwell issued a press release today emphasizing that her cause celebre—derivative regulation—which got short shrift in the original Senate version (she was one of two Democrats to vote No in May ), was included in the final product. At the PI, Joel Connelly noted her "victory lap."
But really, she didn't get everything she wanted. In February, Sen. Cantwell gave Josh her list of must-have reforms: absolute separation between commercial and investment banking (reenactment of the Depression-era Glass Steagall Act); a cap on bank size by market share; her successful derivatives regulation (i.e. forcing derivatives to be traded and regulated through a central clearinghouse); and stricter standards governing market speculation like limits on aggregate positions across markets.
So she only got two out of four. Her populist demands—capping a bank's market share and reenacting the Glass-Steagall—went down.
What's interesting is that while Cantwell eventually voted for the bill without those provisions, her original ally did not. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who cosponsored the Glass Steagall and market share provisions, was the lone Democrat to hold out when the Grapes of Wrath stuff didn't make the cut.
