Financial Reform

Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren Should Be Head Of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau!

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Now that the Financial Reform legislation has passed both houses of Congress and will be going into effect soon, the President has to find someone to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the right person is Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard University!

Warren has been the head of the Congressional bailout oversight panel, and has been tough on the Treasury Department on how they spent their money, and been a critic of a housing program that has not protected homeowners!

Warren has been a consumer advocate and watchdog, and a long term critic of Wall Street, which, along with Republicans, is fighting her nomination! The fact that she wants to hold Wall Street accountable is more than enough reason to appoint her to head this new consumer agency, which has been sorely needed for a long time!

This is a woman of courage and conviction, who will really be there for the American people, and hold the banking industry responsible for their reprehensible behavior which led to the Great Recession we are suffering through now for two and a half years!

If President Obama gives in to the pressure to deny her the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, then one will have to have doubts about his sincerity in pushing for this legislation, and progressives and liberals will have to reconsider their support of a President who caves in to pressure from the right wing! 🙁

Senator Scott Brown: “Most Valuable Senator” To Likely Retirement In 2012!

Ronald 1 Comment

Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts rocketed to stardom and attention by winning the special election to succeed Senator Ted Kennedy through the end of the unexpired term to 2012!

He has proceeded to become, at least in Democratic minds, the “Most Valuable Senator”, as he has now caused the Democrats to win a few victories on legislation by providing the crucial “60th vote” to overcome the filibuster of his Republican colleagues!

Brown has played the politics game very well, playing hard to get his vote, and gaining major concessions from the Obama Administration on his most recent vote allowing passage of the Financial Reform legislation!

So Brown is a celebrity and a center of attention, but does that mean that he has a “free ride” or even “easy sailing” for the full Senate term in 2012, less than three years after winning the seat?

NO WAY would have to be the answer, as the Democrats, who control all the Congressional seats in Massachusetts, and dominate the state legislature, are not about to cede the “Kennedy Seat” to Scott Brown!

It is likely that a Kennedy family member, now rumored to be the Senator’s son, Ted Kennedy, Jr, who looks and speaks like his dad–totally the opposite of brother and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy–will run for the seat! He had never shown interest in electoral politics before, but he made a great impression at the funeral of his dad, and with the name “Ted Kennedy”, how could he lose to Scott Brown?

So, Senator Scott Brown, enjoy your fame and attention, but don’t count on being around after the end of 2012! It would be a major miracle for you to overcome the Kennedy dynasty!

Financial Reform Legislation Finally About To Pass, Thanks To Three Republican Senators! :)

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The most significant financial reform legislation in generations is about to pass the Senate, after patient behind the scenes negotiations by Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Obama Administration!

With the loss of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the opportunity of gaining 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster seemed unlikely, but as on the economic stimulus legislation, three Republican Senators from the Northeast, seen as moderates in a party more right wing than ever, have had the courage to cross party lines and back the President!

On the economic stimulus bill last year, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania backed the President, and then switched parties.

So Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are now joined by Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who has proved to be an independent in many ways, and very hard to predict what he will do on any legislation!

At a partisan time such as now, with the fall campaign already in motion, it is important that we salute Senators Collins, Snowe, and Brown for bipartisanship of the best kind!

Thank you, Senators, for doing what is best for the American people! 🙂

The Silence Of Republican Leaders Speaks Legions!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican party, being the party “out of power” in Congress and the White House, supposedly has the advantage to gain a large number of seats in Congress and in the governorships this November, but this is not a good time for the Republicans!

The issue of illegal immigration has been stirred into a major controversy by the Arizona law scheduled to go into effect in July; the refusal of the Republicans, except for a few Northeasterners (Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Scott Brown), to back financial reform at a time when so many Americans want strict regulation is a major shortcoming; the libertarian candidacy of Kentucky Senate nominee Rand Paul makes many Republicans speechless, trying to figure out how to deal with him in a public relations sense; and the “family values” party having to deal with so many members who have ethical and moral problems is an embarrassment! All of these issues make being a Republican in the age of Barack Obama very difficult!

Can the party allow the Tea Party mentality best represented by Rand Paul to take over their party agenda, which is, in many ways, so different? Even Rand Paul now trying to back BP Oil in the Gulf of Mexico disaster further complicates how the GOP is to react to this “loose cannon”, who will provide more “cannon fodder” for the media and the Democratic Party!

Can you imagine a week where House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele are strangely silent? When has a week gone by when the top GOP leaders have avoided the news media?

This is a clear sign of the bind that the Republican party is in, as it should be a year of great gains in the states and the Congress, and yet so many problems and burdens exist, and there is no easy answer as to how they handle these various “hot potatoes”! 🙂