Sen. Elizabeth Warren already has a new confrontation with her own party over Wall Street’s influence scheduled for early next year.
Following a major showdown with President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over the roll-back of a Dodd-Frank banking regulation included in the spending bill funding the government through September, the Democratic Massachusetts senator is set to challenge the administration’s nomination of a banker to a prominent position in the Treasury Department.
The nominee for undersecretary for domestic finance, Antonio Weiss, is the head of investment banking for Lazard, where he has worked on major mergers and acquisitions deals. Those include, recently, the deal that sent Burger King’s headquarters to Canada as part of a deal by the Canadian chain Tim Hortons.
That Weiss was involved in the most prominent example of a corporate “inversion,” a tax-cutting maneuver involving merging with a foreign-owned company, was enough to raise flags among liberals.
But even more importantly, Weiss has become the latest target in Warren’s efforts against what she sees as the undue influence of Wall Street in government, whatever form it might take.
Warren’s fight will create immediate trouble for an Obama administration already facing the prospects of two years of Republican opposition in the Senate.
But it’s one that many on the Left are eager to wage.
“Time after time in government, the Wall Street view prevails,” Warren said in a mid-December speech on Weiss, adding that “conflicting views are crowded out.”
As a result, Warren’s supporters view the upcoming confirmation process as a chance to confront the influence of the financial industry in government.
“What can be gained is real clarity from the White House and Democrats in Congress that we’re going to reject the Wall Street stranglehold on the political process,” said Neil Sroka, a representative for Democracy for America, a progressive political action committee.
Weiss’ nomination will be determined by Republicans, and in particular by incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has to decide whether to reverse Reid’s decision to require only a majority vote for nominees. Requiring a 60-plus vote to avoid a filibuster would strengthen Warren’s hand.
She already has secured the support of a range of Democrats, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Al Franken of Minnesota, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number three Democrat in the Senate. The independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont also said he would oppose Weiss.
Manchin, generally considered the most moderate member of the Senate Democratic conference, said on the Senate floor that Weiss’ nomination “fits the administration’s pattern of choosing Wall Street insiders to senior policy positions instead of those with strong consumer protection or community bank and credit union experience.”
Warren likely can also count on the support of Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, two of the top critics of Wall Street on the Left who have said that they will meet with Weiss before making a decision.
The Obama administration has maintained that Weiss is liberal, being the publisher of the Paris Review and a co-author of a report on taxes published by the Center for American Progress.
Earlier in December, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew tried to downplay the Democratic opposition to Weiss. “I think you’re hearing more from the few than from the many,” he said. He also defended Weiss on the grounds that private-sector experience is needed in office. In particular, Weiss will be in charge of managing the federal government’s nearly $13 trillion in debt held by the public, a job that the administration has said would benefit from a banker’s management.
Not everyone in the financial industry agrees with that assessment. Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, wrote in a December blog post that “whereas Mr. Weiss has a relatively narrow professional background as a Wall Street executive specializing in international mergers and acquisitions, the Treasury position requires someone with a broad background in financial services, not just Wall Street.”
But for the Weiss selection’s biggest critics, it’s not about his qualifications or competence, but rather simply about cutting down Wall Street.
“All the people who are leaping to Antonio Weiss’ defense are exactly the people who need to have less of a voice in Washington, honestly,” Sroka said.
