Passage no sure thing
May 17, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)From Time Magazine:
The conventional Beltway wisdom is that financial reform is definitely going to happen, but well-placed sources tell me … Actually, well-placed sources tell me the same thing. Everyone in Washington seems sure that no one in Washington wants to look like a tool of Wall Street. So reform is supposedly unstoppable.
Last month, I was skeptical. But now that sources who are much closer to the process than I am and know much more about finance than I do assure me reform is inevitable. Well, I’m still skeptical. (See seven key elements of financial reform.)
It’s mostly an Occam’s razor thing. Every House Republican voted against the bill the House passed last year. Every Senate Republican signed a letter opposing the bill the Senate is debating now. Big Finance is spending $1.4 million a day to fight reform, with a lobbying army that includes 70 former Congressmen and just about everyone who ever staffed a congressional banking committee. It’s certainly possible that Congress would resist all that pressure, and the same Republicans who marched in lockstep against health reform would stop blasting President Obama’s socialism long enough to hand him another huge victory before the 2010 elections.
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