Obama targets bank reform after health care win
US: Fresh from a landmark health care victory, President Barack Obama
on Monday trained his sights on sweeping reforms of Wall Street’s
“too-big-to-fail” banks.
Obama who was expected Tuesday to sign health care legislation that
will overhaul one sixth of the economy — was joined by key lieutenants
in pressing for a similar remake of the banks blamed for dragging the
economy to the brink.
In the Senate, Obama ally Christopher Dodd pushed a 1000-plus page
finance reform package through his powerful banking committee, while
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared at a conservative think
tank to call for reform. Dodd’s key committee passed the bill without
Republican support in a 13 to 10 vote, paving the way for a full Senate
vote and leaving Dodd — who will retire by the end of 2010 — to promise
reform by year’s end.
The Bill would introduce a slew of Wall Street reforms, creating a
potentially powerful consumer financial protection agency, placing
checks on executive bonuses and curbing risky investments.
The White House quickly moved to welcome passage of the bill, which
Obama said would help ensure “the American taxpayer never again pays the
price for the irresponsibility of our largest banks and financial
institutions.” Obama vowed to continue to fight to strengthen the
measures as they move to the full Senate in the coming weeks.
Geithner, whose legacy as treasury secretary will likely depend on
the recovery from banking-induced crisis, told the American Enterprise
Institute “financial reform is not a war of choice; it is a war of
necessity.”
He also vowed to fight opponents of reform, who he alleged were
spending over one million dollars a day to neutralize the package, which
would also create a committee with the power to break up
“too-big-to-fail” banks.
Geithner warned lawmakers the passage of the bill would be a “test of
our capacity as a nation to deal with complex and consequential
problems.”
“If we fail to act, America will lose this opportunity to set the
global agenda,” he cautioned.
The American Bankers Association on Monday denied opposing reform but
said the current bill would “reduce the ability of our industry to
support the economy.”
Still, with widespread popular support for reform, the Obama White
House may also see an easy next legislative target, particularly with
Congress plagued by partisanship after the health care vote.
In an ABC World News poll released Monday, 77 percent of Americans
said the financial industry had not done enough to atone for its role in
the economic crisis.
With Democrats likely to paint Republican health care opposition as
pro-industry, Republicans may be reluctant to cast their lot with
despised bankers ahead of this year’s midterm elections, according to
Douglas Elliot of The Brookings Institution.
“The politics are very different than for health care reform. The
public is demanding action, although the area is too technical for them
to know exactly what they want,” he said.
“It is not clear that there are 41 senators who would be willing to
stand up and filibuster a bill when that action would be portrayed as
siding with the bankers.”
After Monday’s vote Dodd’s long-time interlocutor in the Republican
Party, Bob Corker — who voted against the bill — sounded an optimistic
tone about the prospect of bipartisan support for reform.
“(I) hope that there is still an opportunity to produce a sound piece
of legislation that will merit broad bipartisan support from the full
Senate and stand the test of time,” he said.
Washington, AFP |