American Bridge

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Wall Street Reform

Romney Wanted To Repeal Wall Street Regulations – Has Not Been Specific On What Would Replace It

Romney’s Financial Regulation Plan Was To Have “Something” Replace Dodd-Frank After It’s Repealed. According to The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, “On financial regulation, Romney would ‘repeal Dodd-Frank and replace with streamlined, modern regulatory framework.’ That is literally his entire plan. Three years after a homegrown financial crisis wrecked the global economy, the likely Republican nominee for president would repeal the new regulatory architecture and replace it with … something.” [The Washington Post, Ezra Klein, 8/6/12]

Romney Adviser Lanhee Chen Said Romney Would Get Rid Of The Dodd-Frank Law And Would Seek To Replace The Law’s Volcker Rule. According to CBS News, “In talking about financial regulations, Chen reasserted Romney’s desire to get rid of the Dodd-Frank law, and disputed the assertion that repealing the law would lead to ‘a dog-eat-dog kind of situation where there’s absolutely no regulation.’ ‘Governor Romney has made clear that we do need some regulation of derivatives trading, that we do need to have some kind of consumer protections in place, that we do need to look seriously at things we can do to ensure that the financial services industry is regulated in a reasonable way,’ Chen said. ‘But Dodd-Frank is really not the answer. And so I think we have to resist the temptation to caricature what a post-Dodd-Frank world looks like.’ He also said Romney would seek to replace the Volcker rule, one part of Dodd-Frank that restricts the ability of banks to make certain kinds of speculative investments that do not benefit their customers.” [CBS News, 6/1/12]

WSJ: Wall Street, Washington And Gingrich

On January 13, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Newt Gingrich and his consulting companies helped financial-services giant Credit Suisse Group gather exclusive Washington information and analysis, showing that the Republican presidential candidate benefited from a practice that has come under fire from lawmakers.

This “political intelligence” business—while legal—also risks muddying the campaign argument by the former House speaker that he has been a Washington outsider since he left Congress in 1999.

iWatch News: K Street, Wall Street line up behind Sen. Scott Brown in his race against Elizabeth Warren

On December 2, 2011, iWatch News reported:

Financial service lobbyists and other K Street advocates have for weeks been working hard to help the freshman senator win his high-stakes battle for re-election against Elizabeth Warren, a liberal Harvard law professor. Warren is anathema for many finance-sector lobbyists and Wall Street leaders who abhor the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau— a centerpiece of the financial services overhaul—of which Warren was the intellectual architect.

Dean Heller’s Wall Street Doublespeak

In a blatant attempt to hide his record of standing up for Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, Senator Dean Heller went on KLAS-TV8 to lament how “there’s no shame on Wall Street.”  (Video here)  The fact is, Heller voted repeatedly to protect taxpayer-funded bonuses to Wall Street executives while filling his campaign coffers with their money.

Did Dean Heller feel any shame as he voted to hand taxpayer money to Wall Street CEOs?  Did he feel any shame when he gladly cashed their contribution checks?  Nevadans deserve better than Dean Heller’s Wall Street doublespeak.