Today, Dave Weigel considers the GOP and their views on financial reform:
Republicans don't like being smeared as doing Wall Street's bidding when they slow down passage of financial reform. That makes sense; Democrats are going overboard when they make that claim, and the public record shows that the party is willing to stage a fight to make Republicans look back. But can't the GOP engage on the merits of the bill without walking up and down the street with a sandwich board that reads "The Bailouts Are Coming"?
The thing is that Republicans in general don't have any policy on this; key Republicans have opposed almost any kind of restriction on large bank practices, changes to consumer protection authorities, shifts in regulatory structure, etc. There has been exhaustive reporting on the direct fundraising demands that Republican leaders have made to the financial sector in return for killing reform efforts. Of course Democrats have also solicited and accepted campaign funds from Wall Street, but they are also putting forward a relatively strong overhaul effort.
On the good side, Sen. John McCain has co-sponsored a bill to bring back Glass-Steagall but hasn't made a lot noise about it. Sens. Bob Corker and Chuck Grassley have indicated their support for parts of the Dodd bill but haven't jumped to support the whole thing yet. Other moderate Republican senators could join one or more of the above names in ending the Republican filibuster later today.
Then you have transparent foolishness like this:
"We have been drafting an alternative approach since the very beginning," said one [Republican] staff member, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation more frankly. "It may come to the point where Republicans decide, 'Let's just put out specifically what we're for.' That decision hasn't been made yet."
Aides declined to talk in depth about how a Republican alternative bill would differ from the legislation sponsored by Dodd. But they said it almost certainly would include language to overhaul the government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
If, after a year at this, GOP operatives can't describe their differences from the Dodd bill anonymously, I'm guessing their differences are minimal or transparently political. Give them points on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; reforming these entities was supposed to be part of the financial overhaul, but the complexity of the issue, the lack of apparent solutions, and the toxic politics of the housing market have led the Democrats to postpone addressing that question. Republicans' own motivations here are pretty clear: They love to blame Fannie and Freddie, as well as the Consumer Reinvestment Act, for the crisis, despite the wide body of evidence that both were victimized by the crash more than they caused it.
More to the point, if the GOP has ideas, they can bring them as amendments when the bill comes to the floor. The fact that they're blocking the bill suggests they don't have much prepared.
Republicans, for a variety of reasons, related to politics, the failure of doctrinaire free-marketism, and a suspicion of government, don't have good policy answers for this debate, and certainly not the answers that the public wants. I can't say I'm surprised that they're resorting to political messaging, but in a better world Republican leaders would have listened to Corker, who urged his party to work constructively on the legislation and share in what will likely be a legislative accomplishment.
-- Tim Fernholz
