Do Republicans Not Get It? Did they not pay attention to the thousands of tea parties this past year? Did they not see the hundreds of thousands of tea party protesters across the nation? Did they miss the million protesters who marched down the streets of Washington DC on September 12th?
(Photo via Instapundit and Mary Katharine Ham)
Are the Republicans really that blind? Do they Not Care? Even awful Speaker Pelosi is warming up to the Nazis tea party protesters.
After all of the posturing and preening and shouting and yelling and marching and tea party protesting, America is about to get the whole Democrat agenda shoved down our collective throat. Barack Obama announced today that Democrats are going to use reconciliation to jam Obamacare through Congress and essentially nationalize one-sixth of the US economy. And now, Republicans are about to offer them the rest of the American economy on a silver platter thanks to Senator Bob Corker. Congress is currently working to create a whole new consumer protection division within the Federal Reserve. This new division will give the Fed more power and focus on consumer protection. And, a Republican, Bob Corker, is for some reason leading the charge to create this whole new bureaucracy. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Several senior Republicans have joined negotiations with Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) over how to construct consumer-protection rules, potentially bringing more Republican votes to a broader revamp of finance rules—if Democrats can stomach more concessions.
“We’re very, very, very close to a deal,” Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) said in an interview.
The development came after a closed door meeting Tuesday night between Mr. Corker and Sens. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), and Mike Crapo (R., Idaho).
The meeting was called after a Wall Street Journal story Tuesday said Messrs. Corker and Dodd were near an agreement on a compromise to create a new consumer protection division within the Federal Reserve…
…On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett met with consumer and public interest groups and said new consumer protection rules would be formidable.
At the meeting, Mr. Geithner said it was an “empty argument” that safety and soundness regulation couldn’t be separated from consumer protection, someone familiar with the meeting said. Treasury officials also said they would only support new rules if the agency had an independent leadership, budget and decision making powers, and the power to set rules and enforce them.
Grassroots conservatives are rightly up in arms over Senator Corker’s game of footsie with far left Democrat Chris Dodd on President Obama’s effort to impose a massive new regulatory scheme on America’s economy. Dodd, of course, is one of the architects of the current financial crisis. His decades long support of ACORN, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act should have disqualified him from these negotiations in the first place. But, this is Washington, after all, and apparently Bailout Bob was willing to look the other way and turn the other cheek.
This was even after the House of Representatives passed a similar bill in December, but it received no Republican votes. Close to two dozen Democrats voted against it.
The House passed financial reform bill, crafted by none other than Barney Frank (D-MA) contained a permanent bailout fund for banks and Wall Street firms and created a new agency of government that would be allowed to regulate any and all business in America. It received no Republican votes and close to two dozen democrats opposed the legislation. But, it is alive today thanks to Bob Corker.
The ironically named Consumer Financial Protection Agency will pile a new bureaucracy on top of an existing bureaucracy. It will spend hundreds of millions of dollars imposing job killing regulations on small business. It will have the power to strip consumers of their freedoms and restrict credit opportunities for small business. And, there’s more. Also tucked in the bill is a clause that gives the Federal Reserve the authority to bailout businesses to the tune of an astonishing $4 trillion.
The bill seemed to be dead until Corker decided to grab favorable headlines from the New York Times. According to news reports, Corker’s solution to the problem is to move the new regulatory agency to the Federal Reserve as opposed to leaving it a stand alone agency. Corker is misleading his colleagues and the public by telling them that this will some how save money.
Let’s be clear, the bill contains bailouts for big banks and Wall Street firms and new red tape nightmares for main street businesses. What difference does the location of this new uber-regulatory bureaucracy make? The only thing this bill will save is jobs, paychecks, yachts and third vacation homes for Wall Street bankers and irresponsible CEOs.
The fact is we need to reduce the size and scope of government not allow a government takeover of the financial sector of the economy.
The word from the halls of the Capital is Corker is still trying to cut a deal. But, honestly, what can conservatives possibly get from such a deal? If you strip out the bailouts and the new Washington bureaucracies and regulations, there is nothing left. So, any deal will be a bad one. A quick look at Corker’s financial contributors leaves one wondering whether Corker supports Wall Street more than Main Street. He is giving those at the top a handout while giving the middle class the bill. And as far as the tea party movement. Corker will forfeit any political ground conservatives have gained back recently.
Call Bob Corker and tell him to Stop the Madness. (202) 224-3344
This was cross-posted at Big Government.
March 4th, 2010 | 1:33 am | #1
Judd Gregg in the room? Well known for his mental stability and vanity, actually went to work for Obama. Anyone behind closed doors with Dodd is no better than a member of organized crime and deserves to be impeached.
March 4th, 2010 | 1:33 am | #2
++
twas a Beautiful sight to see.. :-)
1 5 to 2 million march on Washington D C
Tea Party protest rally September 12 2009
==
March 4th, 2010 | 1:50 am | #3
OT: Jim Hoft, will you please consider posting this?
From Oath Keepers Response Team:
“As we prepared our response to Stewart Rhodes’ appearance on the O’Reilly Factory we decided to let Bill debate himself. It is obvious that Bill O’Reilly knows that the 2nd Amendment is specifically for a time of emergency. All that’s left to say is, Bill… you’re a Pinhead! ”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOBUny-8UUI
March 4th, 2010 | 1:56 am | #4
I’m sorry, I just can’t dredge up any more anger at this governing body. I see no difference between either the Democrats and the Republicans – different sides of the same coinage. It’s like getting a Canadian coin in my change at the store; regardless of how I use it in a machine, it’s recognized as only a slug. In good faith I paid the required amount, expecting in good faith to receive the appropriate change. Anyone who trusts the government has misplaced their faith, IMO.
March 4th, 2010 | 2:00 am | #5
You’d think the Obama administration is busy enough controlling the banks, insurance companies and automakers, but thanks to whistleblowers at the Department of the Interior, we now learn they’re planning to increase their control over energy-rich land in the West.
White House land grab
Proposal to seize land would favor animals over Americans
By Sen. Jim DeMint
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2010/03/land-grab-i-can-see-people-getting-shot.html
March 4th, 2010 | 4:02 am | #6
Hey Jim, maybe you should have listened to Glenn Beck when he bashed the repubs at CPAC instead of dismissing him out of hand. I guess you won’t be following in lock step with them after this.
March 4th, 2010 | 6:05 am | #7
[...] sure to kill any hope of fiscal recovery. Nice job, Bob… (read it and weep here and here) While the media and most of the public are consumed by the health care death march, the Senate is [...]
March 4th, 2010 | 6:08 am | #8
Without a Consumer Central Committee for Protection (CCCP), how will the government determine that risky investments like stocks and bonds are inappropriate for 401Ks and IRAs, and force everyone into safer government-backed Treasury-guaranteed annuities?
The Republicans on board do know what this is leading to, with their bipartisan name etched in stone?
March 4th, 2010 | 6:46 am | #9
Looks like you might be agreeing with Glenn Beck? As more and more are!
March 4th, 2010 | 7:01 am | #10
First let me state, I’m a fiscal conservative.
Second, these arguments you’re using ring really hollow. Considering they’re nothing but rhetoric and they use them for EVERYTHING. This “consumer protection agency” already exists within the FED. The FED just doesn’t do its job of protecting consumers. I also CANNOT stand the hypocrisy. All our GOP/Conservatives claim they’re for the people. If that were true, you wouldn’t oppose financial reform, regulation, or consumer protection. After the Great Recession we’re you’d think you learned something, but I guess that’s just not possible when you’re blind, deaf, and dumb.
March 4th, 2010 | 7:02 am | #11
[...] Hoft doesn’t like it one bit: The House passed financial reform bill, crafted by none other than Barney Frank (D-MA) [...]
March 4th, 2010 | 7:18 am | #12
This story is not news. I saw Corker being interviewed about this on C-SPAN about 3 wks ago.
He said that he did not want a seperate Consumer Protection Agency. He also seemed frustrated that other members of the GOP were not working for the good of the country.
Folks should have been on top of this story months ago.
March 4th, 2010 | 7:31 am | #13
Thanks Auntie Madder for that Oath Keepers Dueling O’Reillys video. Terrific.
March 4th, 2010 | 7:44 am | #14
Regulatory reform is needed but not the kind these idiots are proposing. It is clear government control is the motivation versus protecting the public. These are the same dimwits that supervised the meltdown and the boondoggle bailouts. We should be discussing prison terms instead of the size of the next bailout. The egos of these donkeys are bigger than the housing bubble that’s still inflating!
March 4th, 2010 | 7:49 am | #15
And THIS is why conservatives call the GOP the “Stupid Party”…….
March 4th, 2010 | 8:11 am | #16
“Do Republicans Not Get It? ”
No. They do not. Some of them will talk the talk in interviews, but just this week they left one of their own, Sen. Bunning, to stand alone on a matter of one of the principles that they all claim to espouse. And even he had to forego re-election.
And these are the people that some claim will “roll back” Obamacare? Just let them get a whiff of media criticism and they run for the shadows.
March 4th, 2010 | 8:26 am | #17
[...] That actually sounds good to those who desire social justice and more nannying from the state. From Gateway Pundit: The House passed financial reform bill, crafted by none other than Barney Frank (D-MA) contained a [...]
March 4th, 2010 | 8:55 am | #18
Google “CitiMortgage complaints” and you will see thousands of reasons why consumers need protection from financial institutions that are to big to fail. With the gov’t to bail them out they have no reason to treat the customer,,,as a customer. It would be much simpler to let the market place work and allow firms that take to much risk, forget who their customers are just to go bankrupt.
March 4th, 2010 | 8:58 am | #19
“All our GOP/Conservatives claim they’re for the people. If that were true, you wouldn’t oppose financial reform, regulation, or consumer protection.”
You know what the best consumer protection is? Not going into massive debt in the first place.
Guess whose responsibility that is?
March 4th, 2010 | 9:40 am | #20
[...] Brown on Obama’s Health Care Plan: The People Don’t Want This Political Chicanery (Video) and STOP THE MADNESS!… Stop Bob Corker & the Godawful No-Good Banking Bureaucracy Boondoggle and Democrat Eric Massa Lied… Hoyer Knew About Sexual Harassment Last [...]
March 4th, 2010 | 10:14 am | #21
[...] STOP THE MADNESS!… Stop Bob Corker & the Godawful No-Good Banking Bureaucracy Boondoggle [...]
March 4th, 2010 | 12:11 pm | #22
[...] Brown on Obama’s Health Care Plan: The People Don’t Want This Political Chicanery (Video) and STOP THE MADNESS!… Stop Bob Corker & the Godawful No-Good Banking Bureaucracy Boondoggle and Democrat Eric Massa Lied… Hoyer Knew About Sexual Harassment Last [...]
March 11th, 2010 | 9:45 am | #23
[...] The word from the halls of the Capital last week was that Corker was still trying to cut a deal with democrats… a bad deal. [...]
March 11th, 2010 | 11:16 am | #24
[...] The word from the halls of the Capital last week was that Corker was still trying to cut a deal with democrats… a bad deal. [...]
March 11th, 2010 | 2:39 pm | #25
[...] The word from the halls of the Capital last week was that Corker was still trying to cut a deal with democrats… a bad deal. [...]
March 12th, 2010 | 4:37 am | #26
[...] The word from the halls of the Capital last week was that Corker was still trying to cut a deal with democrats… a bad deal. [...]
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