Why am I still a Democrat despite the disappointments of my party at levels from national to local? Mostly it’s because we have lots of people whom I want to follow and help. To take one wonderful example, there’s Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who gave this 10-minute speech on the Senate floor a week ago today:
Democrats don’t like Wall Street bailouts. Republicans don’t like Wall Street bailouts. The American people are disgusted by Wall Street bailouts
And yet here we are, five years after Dodd-Frank with Congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, do nothing for community banks, do nothing but raise the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks once again…
So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi[group]. I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces!
If this Congress is going to open up Dodd-Frank in the months ahead, then let’s open it up to get tougher, not to create more bailout opportunities. If we’re going to open up Dodd-Frank, let’s open it up so that once and for all we end too big to fail and I mean really end it, not just say that we did.
Instead of passing laws that create new bailout opportunities for too big to fail banks, let’s pass… something… that would help break up these giant banks.
A century ago Teddy Roosevelt was America’s Trust-Buster. He went after the giant trusts and monopolies in this country, and a lot of people talk about how those trust deserved to be broken up because they had too much economic power. But Teddy Roosevelt said we should break them up because they had too much political power. Teddy Roosevelt said break them up because all that concentrated power threatens the very foundations of our democratic system.
And now we’re watching as Congress passes yet another provision that was written by lobbyists for the biggest recipient of bailout money in the history of this country. And its attached to a bill that needs to pass or else the entire federal government will grind to a halt.
Think about that kind of power. If a financial institution has become so big and so powerful that it can hold the entire country hostage. That alone is reason enough to break them up.
Enough is enough.
Enough is enough with Wall Street insiders getting key position after key position and the kind of cronyism that we have seen in the executive branch. Enough is enough with Citigroup passing 11th hour deregulatory provisions that nobody takes ownership over but everybody will come to regret. Enough is enough
Washington already works really well for the billionaires and the big corporations and the lawyers and the lobbyists.
But what about the families who lost their homes or their jobs or their retirement savings the last time Citigroup bet big on derivatives and lost? What about the families who are living paycheck to paycheck and saw their tax dollars go to bail out Citi just 6 years ago?
We were sent here to fight for those families. It is time, it is past time, for Washington to start working for them!
I have a hard time being “Ready for Hillary” when Hillary isn’t ready for this. Right now, I’m Ready for Liz.
I’m also, as you read this post that I cued up on Tuesday, preparing myself for surgery early in the morning Friday the 10th to repair a hernia (from all the heavy lifting I have to do in this county and the heavy coughing it sometimes generates) and install some fresh mesh. I’ll be probably more scarce around the blog than usual as I recover over the next couple of weeks. (Then again, blogging is one of the things I can do while lying flat on my back in bed, so maybe I won’t!) I will have one other piece coming up before then that I’m scheduling to appear Friday morning as I prepare to go under the knife — to spread some holiday cheer to those people who like the sound of that phrase being applied to me.
This is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about Liz Warren, my poor abdominal wall, or anything else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of decency and decorum.
Get better soon. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to survive without your prolix masterpieces.
Try nitrous oxide.
I hope Lizzy will chase Hillary far to the left – that will be fun to watch.
“I’d rather be right ….than President!” Who said that? Maybe Teddy Roosevelt, maybe Henry Clay in 1838. The truth is that Liz Warren is a patriot of the first order and very likeable in every regard. Whether Hillary will listen to her or not….will be a major question to ask during the 2016 campaign. Liz Warren should not run for President, she is far too effective in the Senate. Now, she needs to gather her rose buds about her and create a Senate Banking Caucus which is dedicated to watch dogging the Investment, Global, Off Shore, Too Big to Jail Bankers…..from now on!
Dang Greg are you living with a hernia? I hate those. I had one burst Aug 2013 and I almost bled out.
Not any more, cook, unless yesterday’s operation didn’t take.
Mine only involved omentum — adipose (“fatty”) tissue — extruding from behind the umbilical hole in my abdominal wall and turning me from an “innie” to an “outie.” It was could at any time have been joined by intestinal tissue itself, leading to the possibility of strangulation of that tissue by the narrow hole (possibly leading to a bowel resection or a funeral service, depending on how quickly I got to surgery), but I took care not to lift too much since June and it never came to be. Something like an inguinal hernia, lower down in the groin area, would have been much worse. It was often painful and irritating, though, and definitely got in the way of my work.
The restrictions on my ability to lift things are now even more severe for the next months, but it looks like I will be able to sit at my computer, though things like getting up and leaning over are, my incisional scars inform me, not appreciated.
*Greg Dude…….cool. Now keep alert for any signs of infections and you
should be home free. No Revisions please!
Yeah! – I thought you were a gonner cook – glad you’re still vertical.