Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush released a plan Tuesday that calls for the repeal or reform of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, one of the Democratic Party’s most prized legislative achievements.
Bush’s reform proposal would aim to halt growth in government rules on business. Among its chief provisions is a requirement that, for each new rule, regulators would have to eliminate an existing rule of equivalent economic significance.
The plan takes specific aim at the financial regulators, which have grown in size and authority in the wake of the financial crisis.
“Five years of heavy-handed Dodd-Frank regulation has created a two-tiered banking system,” the plan reads. “A few huge financial institutions sit securely at the top, insulated from competition by regulations that impose heavy compliance burdens on their smaller rivals.”
The Bush campaign places special blame on capital rules and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for crimping small banks’ ability to offer credit to businesses and home loans to families.
Bush’s reform plan echoes the criticism voiced by Mitt Romney, who during his 2012 campaign for the presidency said that a provision of the Dodd-Frank law was “the biggest kiss that’s being given to New York banks I have ever seen.”
Romney still went on to raise more from banks like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America than Obama did. This cycle, Bush too has been a favorite of Wall Street.
Bush’s regulatory reform proposal, however, is not limited to finance. He would also seek to roll back environmental and tech rules put in place by Obama.
“Fixing our regulatory system will promote growth and reduce consumer prices, while retaining the benefits of sensible rules to protect our health, our safety, and our environment,” the proposal stated. “These reforms are especially important for the many small firms and middle and low income Americans, who disproportionately bear the costs of regulation.”
