Category: Economy

Dodd Pissing Off Lobbyists

Via tparty, the Dodd campaign has put out a web video highlighting recent press where he has been anonymously attacked by lobbyists for healthcare industries and financial industries for not listening to their corporations’ concerns.

Here’s a link to the Roll Call article where health insurance lobbyists whine about Dodd not listening to them.

Here’s a link to an earlier story in Politico where financial sector lobbyists say the same thing.

And here’s a story from Mother Jones which explicitly lays out how Dodd is ignoring lobbyists for the industry most in play in his work on Banking and HELP committees.

I don’t think all of this makes Dodd a populist – a term I’m guessing he’d reject. I think this is Dodd just being the capital D Democrat that he is. He’s showing a strong recognition that he has the power to use his office to help working Americans in Connecticut and nationwide by passing legislation that really cements his legacy as one of the Senate’s true liberal lions. In this situation and in these tough economic times, Dodd is demonstrating that he will put the peoples’ interests ahead of corporations and lobbyists. I can hardly imagine a better way for Dodd to be conducting his business than the way he’s doing it now. Frankly, if lobbyists for Wall Street and health insurance companies are pissed off by his actions, you know Dodd is doing something right.

Populist Dodd

Rough partial transcript:

“…when I pick up the morning newspaper and I read the first headline that “Fault Lines Emerge and Industry Groups Blast Plan to Create Consumer Agency,” what planet are you living on? The very people who created the damn mess are the ones now arguing that consumers ought not to be protected!  They’re the people who paid this price.  And the idea that you’re going to first attack the very clients and customers who depend on you every day is not the place to begin.”

More, please.

Make Bankers Mad

Joe Nocera has a very interesting column in the New York Times critiquing President Obama’s financial sector overhaul, as compared to the changes FDR pushed through during the Great Depression to put in place a regulatory structure for the financial industry. I haven’t sorted through the full Obama plan yet, but I think Nocera’s closing line is a very good indication of how the public and the White House should be thinking about these needed reforms:

If Mr. Obama hopes to create a regulatory environment that stands for another six decades, he is going to have to do what Roosevelt did once upon a time. He is going to have make some bankers mad.

I think this is obvious to anyone who’s watched in anger as the banksters who got this country in the economic mess we’re currently in get bailout after bailout – and then direct substantial sums to reward their executives for failure. Taxpayer have been asked to carry all of the risk, while the banksters get to play in an economic-political structure where they say “Heads we win, tails you lose.” This is not a cohort that should wind up happy with what the administration puts in place. Quite simply, if it isn’t making bankers mad, it isn’t good enough.

Funny

John Rogers, on real patriotism and rightwing faux populist outrage.

Quick reminder: today, all across America, thousands of people whose taxes will go down are marching and protesting the fact that my taxes will go up.

By 3 percentage points.

Memo to protesters: I’m okay with that, because I am not a selfish dick. I think I can survive the same crushing tax rates we had during the great economic apocalypse of the Clinton Years.

Proud to Pay My Taxes

AsshatteryCat
There’s some serious asshattery afoot today, as right wing bloggers and crackpots take to the streets to hold “Tea Parties” to protest paying taxes. Of course, only in the world of selfish, self-indulgent Republicans can paying taxes be considered something to protest during a time of economic crisis and two wars. Apparently Republicans simply and proudly choose to not support our troops, not support our emergency responders, not support our schools, our infrastructure, and our senior citizens.

Sarah Burris of Future Majority put together a great pushback to the anti-tax teabaggers.  She suggest raiding the rightwing’s #teaparty hash tag on Twitter to remind these fools why we pay taxes.

In the video above, many young people express why taxes are meaningful to them, or why they pay even if they don’t believe in what its going to.

For me it was a first – I had to pay. Not because I made a lot of money, but because I am self-employed. While I have to say it hurts, I know I’m paying for my country. I’m paying for students who can’t afford to go to college so they might have a chance, I’m paying for free lunches, I’m paying for my dad’s salary, for the health care of the 9-11 Firefighters who breathed the toxic air on that awful day. I’m proud to pay taxes because its the right thing to do.

If you’re on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, or any other social network – think about updating your status telling others what you pay for. And tag it with #teaparty.

I chimed in with these tweets so far:

I pay taxes to support our troops #teaparty #teabagging #tcot

I pay taxes because I love my country and my fellow citizens #teaparty #teabagging #tcot

Please join in and help us make sure that no one forgets how important paying our taxes to the survival of the United States and the preservation of the American way of life.

NYT on Dodd Credit Card Legislation

The New York Times editorial board gives Chris Dodd’s credit card legislation very high marks and urges the Senate to pass it swiftly and without reduction in its regulatory powers. Dodd blogged about the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act) at Huffington Post recently. Dodd also did a live video chat at My Left Nutmeg, Connecticut’s main progressive community blog.

The Credit CARD Act will apply far greater restrictions to how banks treat their credit card customers, both while they are clients and when they are being recruited to be card holders. Additionally the Act gives customers far greater protections against usurious rates and unfair policies that aim to punish people for minor mistakes and small outstanding balances from larger initial debts.

The Senate Republican caucus is going to fight tooth and nail against any legislation that makes life harder for the credit card industry. But it’s critical that Dodd and the Democrats stand up for this good piece of legislation and not let conservatives water it down in the slightest. In these tough economic times, we can’t let working Americans be taken advantage of by unscrupulous credit card companies. For a man who is reviled by his opponents on the right for being a friend of the banking industry, it’s deeply satisfying to see Dodd do what he’s always done – stand alongside working Americans and protecting their interests from predatory banks and lenders. The great irony is that while the Rob Simmons, Kevin Rennie, Sean Hannity and the NRSC unfairly attack Dodd for being a friend of the banks, they and their Republican buddies in the Senate be fighting to protect the interests of their friends and campaign contributors in the credit card industry against Dodd’s progressive legislation. And, of course, they will do this with a straight face.

Floor Debate Dominance

Barney Frank just whips the hell out of Republican John Culberson while debating HR 1664, the Pay For Performance Act, on the floor yesterday. It’s really fun to watch an old school legislator show such complete mastery of the subject under debate and why the protestations from Culberson and other Republicans against limiting the compensation of TARP company executives are complete bunk. Frank is one of the members of the Democratic caucus who we see this kind of dominance from most frequently and it’s always a pleasure to watch.

It’s also nice to see him praising Senator Chris Dodd for his work to stop executive bonuses back in February.