Bi-Partisan Bill to crack down on Too Big To Fail

Senators Sherrod Brown (D—Ohio) and David Vitter (R—Louisiana) are cosponsoring a bill that would require stricter capital requirements on the six largest megabanks.  These six banks — which all have more than $500 billion in assets — are JPMorgan Chase; Citigroup; Goldman Sachs; Morgan Stanley; Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.

Instead of breaking up these megabanks into smaller banks, this bill would require the banks to finance at least fifteen percent of their investments with equity.  This would hopefully make them less likely to become insolvent and require another trillion-dollar taxpayer bailout.

In addition to preventing another 2008-style crash, this bill would dilute some of the largest banks’ political clout.  Sherrod Brown said:

“These six banks are from $600 billion to $2.2 or $2.3 trillion in assets, and you know it’s really … way more than the economic power these six banks have. It’s also the political power they have. The power to slow down the rules coming out of Dodd-Frank.  If we do nothing here and things continue — these six banks will have 65 then 70, who knows what percent of GDP their assets will represent. Their political power and their economic power go together.”

And as long as we’re cracking down on Wall Street — or daydreaming about it anyway — the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might start requiring all publicly traded companies to disclose all political contributions to their shareholders.  Imagine that:  hundreds of millions of dollars in secret anonymous contributions, suddenly on public display.

Needless to say, congressional Republicans are scared shitless of having their secret donors dragged out from under their rocks and into the sunlight.  Also needless to say, they’ll pull every possible stunt and parliamentary maneuver to keep the lowly public from ever finding out who owns which candidate.

Obama’s Reform Agenda: Batting .500

I’m only talking about the financial industry overhaul and health insurance reform, since those are the two main reform bills that have already been voted on.

Reining in Wall Street: a Base Hit! This bill still has to survive a Senate vote and that probably won’t be until next year. But the financial overhaul bill made it through the House. This bill creates a new agency to protect consumers from sleazy banking tactics. Republicans tried but failed to delete this new agency from the bill.

The bill also gives the government the authority to break up large “too big to fail” companies whose failure would take everybody else down with them.

And just today, Obama had some harsh words for the Wall Street Marie Antoinettes who’ve been lobbying (using OUR tax dollars!) against any kind of financial reform. He told those flaming douchebags to take their greed and contempt and shove it up their fuckin’ asses so hard it’ll get jammed in their throats. (I’m paraphrasing.)

He criticized banks that received trillion-dollar taxpayer handouts and are now “fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists” to prevent financial reform. He said the economy is just now starting to recover from the “irresponsibility” of Wall Street firms that “gambled on risky loans and complex financial products” and almost took the whole country down with them when they lost. He said “It was, as some have put it, risk management without the management.”

Obama also told 60 Minutes (his interview is supposed to be broadcast tomorrow night): “The people on Wall Street still don't get it. ... They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ... in decades and you guys caused the problem.”

Meanwhile, in the continuing adventures of our watered-down health care “reform” bill: STEEERIKE THREEE!!!

I didn’t think you could water down something that’s already been diluted beyond recognition. But our prostitutes in the Senate — under strict orders from their johns in the insurance industry — managed to find a way.

Several days ago, when the Senate FINALLY came up with SOMETHING, I was relieved. Sure the bill was disappointing. It sucked. But after months of arguing and nitpicking about everything from abortion to death panels to the end of America's "Freedom!" — they finally agreed on something.

And then a mysterious amendment was “discovered” in the bill. Nobody knew how it got there. They were mystified. Shocked! Hidden in a section entitled “No Lifetime or Annual Limits” was an innocuous little sentence allowing insurance companies to place annual financial limits on a patient’s health care, as long as these limits are “not unreasonable.”

Aw heck, that shouldn’t be a problem. Insurance companies being unreasonable???

And the Senate prostitutes are all completely dumbfounded. “Huh. How’d that get in there?” Sort of like a bunch of 6th graders throwing spitballs and paper airplanes when the teacher’s back is turned. And when the teacher turns around, they’re all wide-eyed and “who, me?”

Except, these senators are grownups (chronologically at least) and they’re “earning” six-figure salaries, courtesy of OUR tax dollars.

The People Say “Public Option, YES! And Tax Those Rich Bastards!”

The health insurance industry has gotten a pretty shitty return on their investment. They’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars bribing Congress, creating a bunch of slippery TV ads, and using phony “grass roots” front groups to scare Americans about “Death Panels!” and “government takeover!”

And what have they got to show for it?

After months and months of lies and orchestrated “demonstrations,” most Americans WANT government-financed health insurance, aka the public option. For those of you who can’t count to ten without using your fingers (i.e. Republicans), remember: the second part of “public option” is the word.....[drumroll]........"OPTION.” It’s not a “government takeover.” It’s an option. OK?

And what’s the most popular method of paying for health care reform? The public says Tax The Rich. The robber barons — and their legions of simpleminded worshippers — have been blithering about “Class Warfare” for years. Bring it on!

Meanwhile, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Inbred) is threatening to bring the Senate to a grinding halt by reading the entire health reform bill aloud on the Senate floor. Uh oh, this might take awhile. His index finger will be exhausted after being moved slo-o-o-owly across each page, sentence after sentence. And Coburn’s fellow senators will know when he gets to one of them big words with two syllables: His lips will stop moving and a puzzled addled expression will cross his face.

And speaking of class warfare: a House committee has just voted to enable the government to break up financial firms that are so huge, they’d take the rest of the country down with them if they collapsed. YES!!! About fuckin’ time!

If a company is “too big to fail,” it’s too big. Period. Sounds like good old-fashioned common sense to me, but the bill was opposed by Wall Street lobbyists and their Republican prostitutes. The bill was proposed by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, (D-PA). He said:

“No firm should be considered to be too big to fail. Financial firms that want to play in a casino need to have their own resources to cover their bets and not assume that tax dollars are available in reserve if their bets fail.”

The opposing Republican “reasoning” was that this legislation might force large financial institutions to scale back their size.

AND??!?!?!?