Once again the Right is Wrong, and the Republicans are aligning with the bad guys. It isn't enough that they have sided with the Insurance companies and against health care, they apologized to BP for being forced to pay for their mess, now they have sided with Wall Street, the Banks, and the rest of the crooks that caused the World Wide Economic Collapse, and they have taken positions that would once again harm the people, enrich the bankers, and allow another collapse to happen again. Almost all of the Republicans are once again blocking consumer protection, but not all.
The new Financial Reform bill has the support of three Republican Senators so will pass when it comes up for debate later this week. These three Senators are being demonized by the right wing for doing what they think is right for the nation instead of towing the party line of obstructionism at all cost, despite the need or the virtue of the bill.
The final bill aims to strengthen consumer protection, so credit card companies can't hoodwink you with pages of complex fine print, and for the first time it requires transparency for derivatives and other complex financial products, it will prohibit banks from gambling with your money on those risky ponzi schemes, create a new process so the taxpayers will no longer be required to bail out failing financial firms, and make them stronger to prevent such failure.
The main reason for the reform however is to prevent the type of total world wide economic collapse, that is still crippling our economy, from happening again.
As Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine said: "To ensure we avoid another financial catastrophe such as the one that plunged our nation into the worst recession since the Great Depression, it is imperative that we implement an aggressive overhaul of the American financial regulatory system,"
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/12/news/eco...The Republicans can't really explain why they are siding with those who are out to screw the public and endanger the economy again, because the real reason is that the anti regulatory lobbyists have been filling their campaign coffers with cash. Instead they have fallen back on the old one size fits all SOCIALISM claim.
The Right Wing has been branding any proponents of change, as Socialists, Communists, Fascists, or a number of other derogatory terms. They throw out these terms so prolifically that the terms have long ago lost any meaning and become interchangeable.
Of course the actual Socialists are laughing because none of the so called "Socialist" reforms come even close to what the socialists would like.
The actual Socialists think these modest reforms are toothless and that we shouldn't allow the bankers to get super rich on our money. Their solution would be to nationalize the banks, so they actually do what they were created to do, lend money.
• The U.S. government should nationalize the banks creating something like a U.S. Credit Union with offices throughout the country providing loans to small businesses, homeowners, and cooperatives.
• Low interest loans should be advanced to working people for home improvements, for the purchase of large appliances, and for vacations.
• Educational loans would not be necessary because we would tax corporations to pay for free education.
• The U.S. Credit Union should deny credit to speculators and gamblers in the markets.
"Socialism is not some vague, ill-defined concept. It's a well-established approach to economic and social issues. Americans can agree of disagree with that approach—and they do—but it is absurd to suggest that a little bit of regulation for Wall Street and the big banks amounts to a dramatic abandonment of capitalism."
http://www.thenation.com/blog/37300/fina...