Financial Reform Doublespeak

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Two weeks ago, Barack Obama got personal with Senator Mitch McConnell over financial reform regulation. In his weekly radio address on April 17, Obama claimed that McConnell was lying about the bill at the behest of Wall Street:

Just the other day, in fact, the Leader of the Senate Republicans and the Chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee met with two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about how to block progress on this issue. Lo and behold, when he returned to Washington, the Senate Republican Leader came out against the common-sense reforms we’ve proposed.  In doing so, he made the cynical and deceptive assertion that reform would somehow enable future bailouts – when he knows that it would do just the opposite.

Is it deceptive to claim that the reforms, as currently written, would enable future bailouts? If it is, it will be interesting to see the tongue-lashing Obama gives Senator Barbara Boxer, the Democrat from California. As the Senate begins debate over the legislation, the first thing the legislators will consider is an amendment she offered. What does it do?

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