More on President Obama's Support for Wall Street

Dear Friends,

I came across another article about how Congress voted to permit the big banks to remain too big to fail.  I will quote three critical paragraphs from Zach Carter's excellent article (here):

Late last night, the U.S. Senate rejected the single most important element of Wall Street reform by a vote of 33 to 61. The SAFE Banking Act would have forced the break-up of the nation's six largest banks, and dramatically reduced the political clout of America's financial elite. The 61 votes against the measure are votes in favor of Wall Street's stranglehold on our economy. No matter what else is ultimately enacted in the name of Wall Street reform, Congress has decided that it will not confront the single greatest problem in the U.S. economy: Too Big To Fail.
On Wednesday, the Senate also voted down a $50 billion Wall Street tax that would have been used to fund the cost of shutting down a major failing bank. By rejecting both the break-up bill and the bank tax, the Senate has punted on ending too-big-to-fail. For now, it appears that Wall Street has emerged from the Great Financial Crash of 2008 with even greater political might than it wielded during the reign of George W. Bush. In the Citizens United era, both Democrats and Republicans have decided they can only get so tough with corporate America.
Last night, 27 Democrats joined all but three Republicans to vote against breaking up the banks. President Barack Obama opposed both the tax and the break-up measures, and hosted J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for dinner at the White House on Monday. J.P. Morgan is the largest U.S. bank, and spent more money on lobbying in 2009 than any other bank. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has aggressively courted Dimon for campaign cash.

There is a theme in what is going on.  President Obama, the Democrats and the Republicans can all be bought with campaign contributions.  I hope you read the sentence above that President Obama had CEO Dimon of J.P. Morgan for dinner at the White House.  Why doesn't he invite me for dinner?  I should note for those of you who are from Minnesota that Senator Franken voted in favor of breaking up the big banks, but Senator Klobuchar voted to support Wall Street.  Let Senator Franken know that you appreciate what he did (here) and let Senator Klobuchar know that she needs to stand up for us not Wall Street (here).  

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal