Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) joined with every Senate Republican and Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) to defeat a cloture motion on financial regulation reform put forth by liberal Democrats. He defends his vote in this press release:
I was hopeful that both sides would have reached a bi-partisan agreement by today that protects the safety of our financial system, as well as the interests of taxpayers and consumers. My vote is not a vote against financial reform; instead it’s a vote to insist that the parties continue bi-partisan negotiations to come up with a commonsense bill we can all be proud of.
As currently written, the legislation contains loopholes that could leave the taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts of Wall Street. This bill would also hurt jobs in Massachusetts, including small start-up businesses that did not contribute to the economic crisis and are the job-creating engines that will get our economy moving again.
With millions of Americans affected by the financial crisis, this issue is too important to play political games with or rush through Congress along party lines. There are serious problems with this legislation that must be fixed and I remain hopeful that a bi-partisan agreement can be reached soon.”
Senator Brown absolutely has the right idea.
Few if any doubt that we need financial regulation reform, but we need real financial regulation reform — not legislation thrown together by corrupt senators looking to create new opportunities for trial lawyers and establish a permanent bailout fund.
And yet that’s exactly what the Dodd legislation is. There’s a permanent bailout fund to the tune of $50 billion, funded by new taxes that will harm the private sector. There’s authority for federal regulators to bail out banks that haven’t even failed. There’s regulation that increases costs for consumers and businesses while filling the coffers of powerful trial lawyers.
The legislation Democrats put forth today is fundamentally flawed, and it was rightfully defeated in a bipartisan vote. The US Senate needs to set about crafting real reform that will set our country on a better fiscal path. The Dodd bill, at least in its current state, isn’t the real reform we need.
27. April 2010 at 8:08 am
AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR SCOTT BROWN
Dear Senator Brown,
Your press release gave your reasons for voting to block open Senate discussion on financial reform – you want to “protect the safety of the financial system and the interests of taxpayers and consumers”…that this bill and its “serious problems” “would leave taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts”, “hurt jobs in Massachusetts, including small businesses” – but no supportive detail re the content of the financial reform bill which guided your conclusion.
Have you read the bill? I ask because on Jan 10, 2010, in an Op-ed in Boston Globe, you wrote the Stimulus (ARRA) “had not created a single job”. You repeated same on Feb 4 at your signing-in ceremony, and you were disdainful. Yet on Dec 31, 2009, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued a formal report, copy online, detailing that in 3 months alone, Oct to Dec 2009, 13,879 jobs in your state had been created by ARRA! Since then ARRA poured more funds & jobs into Mass AND $5.5 billion tax cuts & COBRA/unemployment subsidies.
On financial reform, Sen. Bob Corker (R) already refuted GOP allegations like yours from the Senate floor, asserting how the $50 billion fund which banks must pay, NOT taxpayers, “is anything but a bailout….it is to provide upfront funding by the industry so that if these companies are seized, there’s money available to make payroll and to wind it down while the pieces are being sold off”, thus protecting taxpayers.
Your press release is confusing. As a new US senator, when your words raise serious issues we look to you for substantive responses not Frank Luntz style statements. Could it perhaps be your pro-business, pro-banks, anti-middle-class Republican voting record is getting in the way of your commonsense, since the “serious problems” in this bill will be for Wall St, not taxpayers or small businesses.