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Obama Wars Title: Hard times for financial reform Hard times for financial reform 44Democrats accused Republicans of stalling. Republicans said Democrats were overlooking a real financial catastrophe. As Day Two of the Wall Street reform conference debate dragged on, partisan bickering underscored just how tough it would be to finish the bill by July 4. Republicans infuriated the two top Democrats on the committee — Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank — by criticizing Democrats for failing to use the financial reform bill to also reform mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, said leaving the government-sponsored enterprises untouched is “like fighting terrorists without attacking the jihad movement.” At one point, Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, looked at Bachus and said, “I know people who don’t like financial reform would like to degrade the whole process.” Democrats’ frustration with what they considered GOP stalling was evident when Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) — accusing Republicans of being redundant and unrelenting — sarcastically asked Frank for consent to “every hour on the hour ... put the two counterarguments on the record and move on to something else.” Republicans also peppered Democrats with procedural questions that led to several tense exchanges. “Well, it is a stall. I don’t know how else to describe it to you,” Dodd said during a break in the conference committee. “Obviously, they have a lot of members, and Barney’s trying to be open. He wanted C-SPAN to be there, a public debate and discussion, and members can talk about what they want to talk about.” The clash started in earnest over a provision that would require federal regulators to ban Wall Street compensation packages that reward extreme risk taking. Democrats argue the provision is needed to ensure that dollar signs don’t encourage high-level executives to take bigger and bigger risks as they chase higher incentive-based pay. But Republicans and the business community argue the provision would allow the government to set pay, not just for executives, but for rank-and-file employees. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) offered an amendment to strike the compensation controls, saying, “The federal government can literally come in and deny Christmas bonuses for a bank teller.” Frank accused Hensarling of using the issue as a straw man, saying the amendment was not limited to protecting rank-and-file employees but would also throw the rules out for high-level executives. “He’s using the unwarranted fear that we will be going after bank tellers to try to insulate the bonuses of the top executives of the sort that have caused problems,” Frank said. The schedule laid out by Frank and Dodd makes each day of deliberations more difficult than the next, leaving the most contentious issues such as derivatives and a consumer protection agency for next week. Yet, despite all the partisan rancor, Republican Sen. Bob Corker told POLITICO Wednesday that he is encouraged by the first two days of conference debate. “There’s two approaches to take on a bill like this. If you think it’s not a good bill, just don’t pay attention to it and basically check out. Or, even though you may not support the bill as it is, try to improve it on a daily basis,” he said. “I still think there are improvements we can make in every area, and some were made yesterday.” Still, the contentiousness between the two parties is not likely to be over anytime soon. On Thursday, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is expected to introduce an amendment that would prevent companies that have taken government money from hiring lobbyists — a ban similar to the one Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac faced after their government takeovers. “Any company that has borrowed taxpayer dollars should not be allowed to hire a lobbyist until the taxpayers have been repaid in full,” said Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella. “Talk about a revolving-door situation — there is no justification for allowing a company subsidized by taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist so they can try to influence the very government that owns the company.” Conference members also discussed Senate language on reviewing the activities of the Federal Reserve. The legislation passed by the upper chamber last month calls for the one-time audit of the nation’s central bank and gives the Government Accountability Office the authority to review the Fed’s emergency lending program in a defined window from Dec. 1, 2007, to the day the Wall Street reform is signed into law. The deal on the measure was the result of a last-minute compromise between Dodd and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who agreed to weaken some of his language to gain enough votes to move forward. The Senate on Wednesday accepted two significant changes on the Fed provision as offered by the House — calling for an ongoing GAO review of open-market transactions and the discount window, which allows institutions to borrow money from the Fed, usually on a short-term basis to meet emergency shortages of cash. The House offering also included a requirement of the Fed to publicly disclose the names of discounted window borrowers two years after they have sought loans from the central bank. Disclosing the names of borrowers initially faced Fed resistance on fears that outing borrowers would weaken those firms’ positions in financial markets. But the two-year cushion was enough to ease lawmakers’ concerns Read more: www.politico.com/news/sto..._Page2.html#ixzz0r8Gpo9Dw
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A few years ago Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I heard this week they are now worth $600 and $500 THOUSAND dollars respectively. That the Democrats to this day refuse to stop these to government controlled entities from throwing billions of taxpayer dollars away while giving millions of dollars in 'bonus's' to their respective CEO's is unbelievable. Barney Frank's bullshit cost the American Tax Payer a cool ONE TRILLION DOLLARS folks.
The break up value of the companies is worth in the 10's of millions before even considering performing assets. This is another one of your infamous CA is losing population moments. Get your hearing checked...
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