At this time last year, the American financial system was near collapse, rescued only by hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Now the system has stabilized, and the industry is on the verge of a coup that many would have thought impossible a year ago: an escape from any major reform of financial regulations.
He later quotes from the head lobbyist at the American Financial Services Association (AFSA):
"This was supposed to be a slam-dunk," crowed Bill Hempler, the group's top lobbyist. But instead, he said, "Democratic members are increasingly having heartburn over CFPA [Consumer Financial Protection Agency] and maybe second thoughts."
It's absolutely mind boggling that even the head lobbyist of AFSA thought this was going to be unavoidable, and yet, here we are, with no new regulation on those who plunged our nation (and indeed the entire world!) into a crisis from which we still have yet to emerge. I've discussed this topic before, but I never, in a million years, would have thought the wishy-washy, incoherent financial industry talking points (pdf) would get through to anyone. Just listen to Milbank's characterization, which I think is an accurate one:
Or, to put it another way: Don't regulate us now because the economy is still suffering from the mess we made because we weren't regulated the last time. Chutzpah, it appears, is recession-proof.
I'm sure there's more going on than I know about, which is almost always the case in Washington, and I'm not usually one to raise the banner of outraged populism, but how in the hell is this regulation not getting done? How is there no one who can bring this to the attention of the population at large? I mean, you try to alter a small percentage of the population's health insurance and people act like the troops are storming our homes, but you try and regulate an industry that is almost unanimously hated by every citizen of the country and everyone's like, "Yawn. What else is on?"
I would love to blame this failure, which I find to be the single most disappointing aspect of the new government, on the Republicans. And to some extent I can and do, as they have essentially taken a posture of "oppose anything and everything a Democrat says or does, no matter how much sense it makes," which has resulted in at least a significant delay of every single thing on the Democratic agenda (an agenda which many seem surprised to learn was actually voted for by the vast majority of Americans in both 2006 and 2008).*
In reality though, the public will exists to support this regulation. No question. No amount of strong-arming the opposition would hurt your poll numbers. No amount of dirty, hardball politics would be overkill to see this initiative through. Indeed, I would estimate the political spoils of being the champion of such an initiative to be copious. So then if it's not the people holding us back, who is it?
There are only two causes I can think of that explain this phenomenon, and I've been dancing around them this entire piece because I'm not ready to become cynical yet. You have likely already come up with them: the Representatives in charge of this reform are either spineless, or bought and paid for, and most likely both.
If this angers you (and it absolutely should), here is a list of representatives you can focus your anger on: Barney Frank (D-MA), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Bob Corker (R-TN), and Mr. Blow-Up-the-Government himself, Ron Paul (R-TX). Milbank, thankfully lists these individuals out in his column.I only wish I lived in one of those states so I could vote against these financial industry shills. It truly sickens me, and pushes me toward the cynicism I have have tried so hard to avoid. Thanks so much, financial industry. You've ruined my country, broken my compatriots, corrupted my government, and begun crushing the soul of yet another young, bright-eyed optimist.
*This, interestingly, underscores the idea that the Republican platform of "the government is bad at everything" is actually a self-fulfilling prophesy. It's kind of like me telling you my computer doesn't work as I jam the keyboard into the CPU. When it breaks I can say, "See? It's broken."
(Image of financial worker and his conscience from http://www.bvisible.ie/newsimages)
