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Reid To Collins, Snowe and Brown…Thanks A Bunch…We Couldn’t Have Done It Without You!

GOP’s Snowe, Brown back Wall Street overhaul bill

Snowe of Maine and Brown of Massachusetts join Susan Collins of Maine as three crucial Republican votes for the legislation.

“While not perfect, the legislation takes necessary steps to implement meaningful regulatory reforms, create strong consumer protections and restore confidence in the American financial system,” Snowe said in a statement Monday evening.

In breaking with the rest of the Republican Party, the three lawmakers appeared to give Democratic leaders the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles facing the legislation.

And with that, Obama’s socialization of the free market is complete. THAT, with the help of no less than three Republican Senators….

Of Course, Prince Harry was glowing as he patted his Republican lap dogs on the head for their fealty.

“We will finish our work on this bill this week to ensure that these critical protections and accountability for Wall Street are in place as soon as possible.” ….

“Despite the difficult political climate, these Republicans have joined Democrats to support these common-sense protections for consumers, investors and financial institutions that will help prevent another financial crisis,” Reid said.

and we haven’t seen what will happen with Grassley who voted for it the first time through…and Bennett who each say in the same language used by Snowe Collins and Brown that they have “Reservations”.

“We’ve got some concerns that some of the banks in Nebraska have raised,” …. “We also have some banks in Nebraska saying vote for it. We’re trying to balance out the concerns that have been raised. There’s a certain amount of uncertainty. You don’t have regulations written. You don’t know who’s going to be the head of the consumer protection bureau.”

A fourth Republican who voted for the Senate version in May, Charles Grassley of Iowa, has indicated he has reservations as well.

Of course you can bet you bottom dollar…if their votes are needed…they’ll be on their knees before prince harry…tongues stuck to his boot.

What’s that again about Northeastern so called “Moderates” being socially “Moderate”
and fiscally Conservative?

COMMENTS

  • mikerazar

    is that

    a. Nobody reads them before voting.

    b. They invariably establish pockets of nearly unlimited executive power. Even if the legislation permits judicial review, that remedy is too expensive for any entity that is not too big to fail.

    c. The language is always vague and imprecise. Regulators may be tied down procedurally, but rarely substantively..

    d,. The main impact of the bill will be to shore up the oligopoly is is designed to protect from innovative competitors.

    e. a, b, c, and d are not unintended consequences. They are the whole point..

    Disclosure: I have read a few hundred pages of earlier drafts, but not the entire final bill.

    Doesn’t the Republican Party have anyone knowledgeable enough to show the NE RINOs just how bad this bill is?
    I have not seen a detailed analysis from the GOP policy wonks (if there are any).

  • fpete13527

    ………..has driven another Coffin Nail into the country…at a critical time

    Brown turned out to be a massive wasteful mistake.

    But those like the Trigger Sisters, Bennett, McCain etc (and the other covert RINOs – which are many ) may come close to killing this country.

    The GOP still doesnt basically get it that this group will cast their socialist support votes ……..at the absolute worst times!!!!!

    They won’t cast their RINO votes when things are good and their votes are not needed…….THEY WILL CAST THEIR VOTES WHEN THINGS ARE BAD (LIKE NOW) AND THEIR VOTES ARE NEEDED BY PROGRESSIVES (LIKE NOW!!!)

    The RINOS are what this group of Republicans still love best though and they are praying that they can increase their RINO core in the fall.

    Brown…..you are a disgrace.
    Trigger one and two…..double disgrace.

    • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

      We knew two weeks ago that once that 19 billion financial tax was removed this bill was most likely going to go forward. They removed it: it went forward; and hey! Elections have consequences!

      Here, have some.

      • izoneguy

        And get that 19 Billion anyway.

        Oh, you say you don’t want Obama to get re-elected?
        Tell that to these RINO’s who are enabling the great deceiver.

        This bill is just as bad if not worse than ObamaCare. It will do nothing
        but grow government and hamstring our financial industry. Once this gets signed by Obama the bottom in the stock market will drop out.

        • Bill S

          It’s not like the market can’t see this coming. There’s nothing magical about the day of signing the bill. Once the Senate passes it, it’s a given that it will be signed. The market will have built it into the price long before Barry generates those souvenir pens…

          • Richard Mullins

            When it was getting close I figured that the Dems weren’t going strip the 19 bil in taxes to get the Maine blueberries and Scott Brown. I guess I was a little wrong on that. It seems that Boss Reid needed those votes a little too much. It’s going to take a while for the market to work it all in. It’s not going to be an overnight thing.

  • cwilson

    Just add it to the end of the increasingly long list.

    • Richard Mullins

      Really, it Repeal time in 2013 for lots of things. No big deal to work up about now, it time to put it on the Christmas list of what to repeal in 2013.

      • AceInTX

        why would they vote to repeal it when they were the ones who broke the back of the Republican filibuster and got it passed in the first place.

        Mitch and the boys will play the same game they’re playing on Obamacare. They’ll prattle on about repeal while they put up meaningless bills and discharge petitions to get something to the floor and the only thing these crap weasels will do is tinker areound the edges and put their stamp on it before the day is done.

        I hope I’m wrong…but show me anything that indicates that they have the will to do anything in the way of repealing anything Obama has done…I’m serious…show me anything because right now I’m not all that encouraged. I don’t like always bashing my Party and I don’t like having the reputation of never having anything to say about may party…but tell me what the party is doing to change things or what the party is doing to stop the usual suspects from throwing a wrench in every effort to stop Obama.

        • Richard Mullins

          but we might now a little of what happens at the time when the 112th Congress starts in Jan 2011. If we get closer to 50 and there numbers are closer to 50, things might get dicey. You need to stay focus on the goal and trying to get you blood pressure up on what S. Brown and the Maine blueberries do. Focus,Focus,Focus is what’s needed.

          • AceInTX

            or some other disaster where we had a chance to keep them stuck on this one so Harry Reid get’s a twofer….and I haven’t heard that the thee stooges got anything for their little dance off the reservation

        • cwilson

          the coattails of the new Republican president get us a +4 or better, we won’t CARE what the Maine Morons or Brown does, because I don’t see them voting to sustain a Democrat filibuster, especially after the disastrous effects and all the wonderful hidden jewels of this “reform” are exposed. All we’d need is 50 + the republican VP.

          We just have to hold on, work, and hope, for big gains in 2010 and 2012. And trust that Churchill was right: “There is a great deal of ruin in a country” (e.g. it takes a VERY long time to irreversibly damage a country.) Obama may get close to that goal of his, but I hope and pray he doesn’t complete his project by the time we kick his *** out of the Gipper’s chair.

          • Richard Mullins

            The answer to what happens in Jan 2013 will be how many we have on Jan 2011.

  • AceInTX

    when you stock prices and 401 Ks collapse because of the uncertainty in the market caused by this law…when you can’t get loans to keep your businesses going…when your property values are in free fall because the home lending market has dried up….would it be law if Snowe Collins and Brown had stuck with the rest of the Republican caucus and helped maintain the filibuster?

    Would it be law if Chuck Grassly hadn’t played ball with the Dems the first time through…

    I want to here from Snowe, Collins and Brown what it is about this law that makes it worthy of passage….or even an up or down vote….PLEASE tell me without the usual “reaching across the isle” and the “American people are tired of the rank partisanship” BS. What specifically is it about it that is worthy of breaking a successful filibuster?

    • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

      …abruptly becomes a Congressional minority. A severe Congressional minority. We lose the ability to do reliably anything except mitigate the damage. Again, elections have consequences, and we’re in the middle of the ones stemming from conservative voter dissatisfaction in 2006 and 2008.

      Moe Lane

      PS: I would appreciate it if people skipped the “I know that, Moe, but…” this time around. Frankly, I don’t think enough people actually do know that, deep in their bones.

      • AceInTX

        I’ll just restate the obvious…Snowe, Collins and Brown could stay with the filibuster and stop this…but they won’t….and they won’t face any consequences….the fact that we’re a minority doesn’t excuse them in my mind and there needs to be some caucus discipline enforced here or we’re just tilting at windmills

        • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

          I had written out a pretty convoluted and inane analogy at first, but I’ll summarize it: if we had given the same full-throated opposition to Dodd-Frank that we did to Obamacare – or, for that matter, cap-and-trade or card check – the situation would be different. And by ‘we’ I mean the Right. If we’re treating this as a political/ideological issue rather than as a existential one, why are we surprised when our legislators do the same?

          • fpete13527

            I didnt completely understand what you were saying before – my density not yours. I understand better now.

            I was outdated in communication regarding it still being a just slush fund bill.

            I just heard another breakdown on Fox Business though, and this thing is EXTREMELY evil, as you have already outlined prior.

            The women and minorities clause in section 342 of the bill are not stated in the form of you will not discriminate……but rather….YOU MUST discriminate.

            In other words, Wall Street MUST have 50% women and minorities whether or not they are people that have any qualifications whatsoever. And all the subcontractors to those organizations must also.

            And yes, the political purpose of this (because we lost) trumps full power over the existential garbage that this bill is.

          • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

            No argument there; it never would have passed the 109th Congress.

          • AceInTX

            my biggest complaint is the lack of passion and everyone just shrugs their shoulders and moves on to the next item on the Obama agenda…

            Elections have consequences is a legitimate argument…but not when we’re actually in a position to stop something…or at least delay it for a couple months to get us closer…or past the Nov elections….but don’t do it becausae of a lack or total disregard for caucus discipline.

            That’s my beef. we need some passion…we need to fight…we need to stop sitting back and doing nothing and counting on November to change things

          • AceInTX
          • Swamp_Yankee

            Whatever one thinks of his poltics, Brown doesn’t hide. He posted his explanation of local sites and talk shows.

            http://www.redmassgroup.com/diary/9054/my-vote-on-financial-reform

          • cwilson

            So…how does Scott Brown justify voting for racial/gender discrimination and job quotas? Is it just one of those things that is “imperfect” but an acceptable compromise to get…something?

            I wonder what MLK would say about that attitude?

            Isn’t racial and gender discrimination about the worst public sin we have in American culture and politics? Voting to deliberately enshrine it as government policy is pretty despicable, isn’t it? Or is George Wallace one of the Maine Morons’ and Brown’s personal heroes, since he also stood up in favor of racial discrimination?

            Even given all that…Brown’s still better than Martha Coakley. Because she would have voted for this monstrosity, too — so that’s a “push”.

          • AceInTX

            So?how does Scott Brown justify voting for racial/gender discrimination and job quotas? Is it just one of those things that is ?imperfect? but an acceptable compromise to get?something?

          • AceInTX

            and again…I’ll reiterate…

            I’d still like someone to make Collins, Snowe and Brown justify breaking the filibuster

            What is it about this bill that justifies abandoning the filibuster…the…apperently dropping the tax increase is sufficient to earn their support…or at least to get them to stop opposing it

          • mikerazar
        • earlgrey

          I thought Orrin Hatch or someone said a vote for HCR by reconciliation would be a declaration of war, and it would shut down the Senate. . . . I’m waiting for that to happen.

          Brown was elected to stop the Obama agenda and now he is giving it the nudge it needs to get it over the top.

      • mikerazar

        nt

        • acat

          I’m not clear, Mike, on why you’re advocating doing this the hard way.

          Destruction is easier than construction.

          It would be significantly easier for the Repubs to find allies across the aisle (a first, I’ll note…) to destroy (repeal) these nightmare bills since the GOP can honestly promise a seat at the table to rewrite ‘em.

          Why are you insisting that Repubs do the rewrite *first*, and then try to find allies to implement it? Bad tactics, to my mind.

          Mew

          • mikerazar

            If we have the votes to repeal and override a veto, of course we do that. Just seems unlikely.

            If not, we can use as leverage “defunding” the bill to get a few important changes. Maybe we can just defund the whole thing, but that doesn’t sound optimal politically.

            I’m not about to go through another 2000+ page monstrosity in advance, but if we win Congress, maybe someone in the leadership (fat chance!) can go through it then to find out what can be fixed. There actually are some decent ideas in the bill though they are swamped by the bad stuff.

            My general problem is that we sometimes get all charged up about doing things we can’t at the expense of things we can. That’s bad enough when you’re in power; it seems almost pathetic when you aren’t. The only reason to choose one strategy over the other right now should be political feasibility and winning elections.

          • acat

            You’re proposing unnecessary complexity here, Mike.

            82% of the country want a do-over. Of those, somewhere around 26% are Libs who don’t think the current Obamacare bill goes far enough. Offer them a do-over.

            *Make them defend the indefensible POS*

            The ads are simple one-liners. “Healthcare? We want a do-over.”

            Mew

          • mikerazar

            We’re talking about the financial reform bill, not the health care bill.

            The health care bill is a snake, don’t get close enough to cut its head off; Just exercise your second amendment right to shoot it (and the PETA guy that gets in the way, but only wound him).

            The Dodd-Frank bill is bad enough, but not nearly as bad as the health care crap. It is also much harder to explain its bad features to the electorate.

          • acat

            And I’ll even agree that the problems with Dodd-Frank are going to be tougher to explain *before* it becomes law, although there are some simple points that can be hit.

            “America doesn’t like it when their banks take ATM fees – how will they feel when the government takes one too?”

            Mew

          • AceInTX

            because the Dems can’t get to 60….

            But they aren’t staying with the caucus….Those are the facts as they stand today…and everything else you say is simply an attempt to convolute and confuse the issues

          • JSobieski

            nt

      • texasgalt

        We had a Republican president and Republican leaders that wouldn’t defend conservative ideals or even themselves starting in ’05. It was a serious beatdown with no response. . . a knockout.

        People get distracted and have lives to lead, oblivious to politics. It should not be this way . . . but it is. Where there is no vision the people perish.

        Then came Palin. Yes, yep, I know, with a few shortcomings. But look how people rally to her and look at the money she has raised and the money she is making. Look what happens when she endorses. Why? Cause she is quick with a retort and takes it right to the statists. People are so hungry for this they interpret it as leadership. Maybe it is. I am happy to have her voice.

        I see she is spreading money around in Iowa, even to Grassley. Now why would she do that?

        • AceInTX

          Look what happens when she endorses. Why? Cause she is quick with a retort and takes it right to the statists. People are so hungry for this they interpret it as leadership.

          I think people are hungry whole stand up and tell it like it is and not pander to one group or another. I think they are hungry who’ll answer every distortion by the Libs and the so called “Main Stream Media” with retort that hit’s them hard and often.

  • itrytobenice

    And pay, and pay, and pay.

    Money is the oil that keeps the economic engine running. BO and his congressional lackeys just dumped a bag of sludge in the motor. Expect more long term unemployment and perpetually lowered economic growth rates.

    This bill does nothing to address the real banking problems, particularly the ones spelled FNMA and FMAC, but does introduce a bucket load of paperwork, expense and hesitancy to banking services.

    • texasgalt
  • AceInTX

    It is impossible to dispose of bad policy after it has become law. better to strngle the monster in it’s crib than to have to kill it once it has it’s claws wrapped so tightly around your heart you have to kill the patient to remove it.

    now our favorite Senators…you know…the ones we constantly pander to election after election actually open up our chests and put the monster’s claws firmly around our hearts….couple this to Kyle and a couple other crap weasels announcing Kagan is as good as confirmed, Graham saying the Republican Party as pandering to the right wing extreme,and we’re supposed to vote in Castle, Kirk and a whole host of other crap weasels to help them out?

    Really…where does that get us?

    • acat
      • AceInTX

        or at least fight it to the bitter end…bake Obama’s victory so bloody and costly that it cripples his efforts to do anything else.

        Our “Moderates” keep doing this because they never face any consequences for doing it. Make them pay as well…they should be losing committee assignments and other plumbs.

        but just shrugging and saying we’ll repeal it later while Obama and the Demonrats keep checking off the boxes on their agenda is destroying this country…and this time….it was three Republicans that put them over the top..

        • acat

          The catch being, Massachusetts is a rather blue-purple state and Brown doesn’t have long until re-election.

          The Maine Twins need a primary. Desperately. They’ve gotten rather used to being in D.C. and in being “independent”.

          I see that Maine has a tradition of independence – but isn’t it supposed to be thoughtful?

          Mew

          • AceInTX

            and from what I hear, Brown is catching all kinds of hell for this…They can stop this and should. If they don’t…they should face the minority leader and whip and give an account.

            In addition, if they allow this to pass…they should get questions on this at every public appearance they have…every press conference…every town hall….they need to be asked till they explain what is is about this that would make them support it…and don’t let them weasel out by saying they didn’t support it because by not stopping it when they had a chance…they supported it!

  • renny

    Have all down’easters turned pink?

    • http://www.barrypopik.com barrypopik

      Rhymes with “pain.”

  • fpete13527

    The more I read your initial post, and your excellent follow ups to this post, , the more I like them.

    I know that attacking the RINO’s can draw fire and can be looked at in a negative light. However at this point it NEEDS to happen and it can’t wait till October through election changes only.

    The Trigger Girls, Brown, or any other covert Republican Statists CANT be allowed to put ANY other Dem/Socialist initiative through. It does not matter what the initiative is.

  • klondike

    They likely will not respond to non-constituent inquiries, but it would be great if their constituents wrote to them or called them insisting on a list of the names of their staff, their positions, and their gender and ethnicities to determine whether they (Collins, Snowe, and Brown) practice what they have just voted to inflict on businesses nationwide.

    My guess is that they will fail the 50% test.

    My experience, while applying for grant after grant to go to school, taught me that being female does not grant one minority status. Only non-white females qualify, and I seriously doubt it had anything to do with gender.

  • renny

    Today, email or call Brown, Snowe, and Collins, as tomorrow is the Frank-Dodd vote, another measure to cripple US business, bring about more recession in 2011 and longer, and corral another industry in Obama’s socialist barn.

    Kagan’s vote has been postponed. Mob your senators so that NOT ONE Rep. votes for her. If she’s not filibustered, she’s going to pass on Dem. votes alone.

    202-224/225-3121, call early and often.

    And see Brown’s Facebook page. He is not loved for this move.