Yesterday, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin did something that's not often done in Washington: Invited to give a speech at the Chamber of Commerce, he went, and called them liars.
It is so puzzling that, despite the urgent and undeniable need for reform, the Chamber of Commerce has launched a $3 million advertising campaign against it. That campaign is not designed to improve the House and Senate bills. It is designed to defeat them. It is designed to delay reform until the memory of the crisis fades and the political will for change dies out.
... The Chamber has every right to oppose those policies with which its members disagree. But as a leading, respected institution, the Chamber also has an obligation to be honest – with you, its members, and with the American people.
...This Center – the Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness – sponsors a website, Stop the CFPA .com. In answer to the question, "what is the CFPA?" that website says the following:
It says the House has passed a bill that would "go so far as to dictate and require `plain vanilla' products, assuming federal bureaucrats know what is best for consumers." That is false. The bill creates no such authority. Neither does the Senate bill.
As the tea-party folks might say, "read the bill."
It goes on in that vein for a bit, and it is worth reading. The scene was, apparently, deliciously awkward. Of course, calling out the chamber now is a bit late in coming; their strategy was clear in September if not before.
Equally exciting is that the Democrats may finally be willing to test the GOP's threats to filibuster a financial reform bill on the floor -- about time. At a meeting yesterday between Sen. Chris Dodd, Rep. Barney Frank, and President Barack Obama, the legislators were urged not to give up too much ground in search of Republican votes; later on, even Sen. Bob Corker admitted he thought it would be hard to maintain his caucus' unity in opposing even a vote on this bill. He went so far as to recognize that Republicans should have begun working with Democrats earlier on in the process rather than delaying.
As nice as it is to see the gears turning and the president's focus reorienting toward financial reform, the Dodd bill as it stands should not be passed by a partisan vote. If Dems want to go it alone, they should pass a strong financial reform bill that represents the greater clarity of Dodd's original vision from November and includes a real consumer financial protection agency, tighter derivatives reform, and more clarity on leverage and capital requirements, not a bill that contains awkward compromises but gains no political support by them.
-- Tim Fernholz
