I just found this video posted by TPM, of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a leading Republican negotiator on financial regulation. Corker might be oversimplifying it, but he makes the argument that the media and most Republicans are missing: Big Government tends to be good for Big Business, and bad for everyone else.
Here are some highlights from the transcript:
Who owns the clearinghouses?
…
When this bill passes, the only thing that’s gonna happen is that the large firms that exist are gonna get larger.
Corker then went on to express exasperation with Obama’s attempt to portray the Democrats as the scourge of Wall Street and Republicans as the protectors of Wall Street. This is the same bogus populism Obama played while pushing a health-care bill endorsed by the biggest industry lobby in the country.
(I’ve been writing about the President’s dishonesty in his reformers-vs-Wall Street regulation quite a bit. Here are some of my recent pieces:
- “Pre-emptive fact-check on Obama’s Wall Street talk“
- “Goldman Sachs wants regulation, not laissez-faire“
- “Obama’s $1M from Goldman was a record from any company“
- “Goldman rallies for Obama in Wall Street ‘reform’ “
- “Obama’s cronies thrive at the intersection of K and Wall“
- “Beware the Goldman Sachs populist“)
