Back to Basics

With GOP assistance on its drafting and three reported Republican votes all but guaranteeing its final passage in the Senate (Snowe, Collins, and Scott Brown), the Dodd-Frank monstrosity masquerading as “financial reform” is on its way.

Read and weep:

A sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations stands on the verge of reaching President Barack Obama’s desk after a year of partisan struggles and delicate cross-party courtships that promised more and delivered less. Only three Senate Republicans say they will vote for the bill during a key vote Thursday that will set the stage for final passage. But the bill bears the fingerprints of many others in the GOP.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., negotiated several provisions with key committee Republicans such as Richard Shelby and Bob Corker. Neither, though, intends to vote for the bill.

…Several 60-vote cliffhangers later, the bill is now two roll calls away from heading for Obama’s signature and becoming law. For a president hungry for good news, passage Thursday would be a welcome achievement.

“Achievement?”

How about a different a-word? I like “assault.” That’s how Heritage describes the legislative behemoth: “The Dodd-Frank Assault on Economic Recovery.”

Following the release of the 2,000-page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill last Friday, fixed-income portfolio manager Christine McConnell told Businessweek: “Clarity is good. [Once financial institutions] understand the rules of the road they’ll be able to accommodate their business models.” There is only one problem: passage of the Dodd-Frank bill doesn’t provide any clarity. In fact, it does the exact opposite. The New York Times explains: “The bill, completed early Friday and expected to come up for a final vote this week, is basically a 2,000-page missive to federal agencies, instructing regulators to address subjects ranging from derivatives trading to document retention. But it is notably short on specifics, giving regulators significant power to determine its impact.”

In other words, this law is going to be continually rewritten by federal bureaucrats for years to come…

This much is clear: The law enshrines permanent bailouts, saves Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s hides forever, and would impose at least $20 billion in new tax hikes over the next decade.

Want an ugly look at how this bill was “legislated?” Via Brian Faughnan:

Early on Friday morning, a House-Senate conference committee finished work on a consensus version of HR 4173, the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill. The conference committee worked for 20 hours to draft this new bill, and completed the work shortly after 5:00AM.

When Congress meets in the dead of night to decide critical issues, it prompts serious questions about the quality of their work. Were important issues debated thoroughly? Were all Representatives and Senators part of the debate? Did all of them consider their votes carefully?

Not surprisingly, the answer is ‘no.’ On Thursday night, the conference committee debated the ‘Volcker Rule,’ restricting the power of banks to engage in trading. Some feel the rule is necessary, others feel it will kill jobs, and give foreign financial institutions an advantage over American banks.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels delivers the State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels ended a speech Tuesday on the impact of President Obama’s new health law by holding up a prop. It was a large syringe that bore the word, “ObamaCare.” But instead of a needle, it was fitted with a large silver screw shaft.

Daniels did it all with a wry and almost bashful sense of humor, but the message from a leading Republican state executive to the federal government was unmistakable: “I think we got a scrap coming,” he said.

The unassuming former Bush administration budget director has stepped onto the national stage in the last few weeks, sparking debate and criticism from the right with comments in a lengthy profile that the Republican party must reach “a truce” over social issues to unite around an agenda focused on reining in government spending and debt.

Following his speech at the AmericIan Enterprise Institute, Daniels appeared exasperated at questions about the row his comments started (which has been fed by Democratic operatives happy to stoke conservative infighting), stating at one point: “I don’t have anything more to tell you about it.”

But during his speech on the impact of the new health-care law at the state level, Daniels did not pull any punches, labeling the new law “a huge blown opportunity” to change a health-care system that he said was badly in need of reform.

“Don’t call this reform. It didn’t reform anything. It took the form we had and blew it up to poster size,” Daniels said. “I’m afraid that by perpetuating the drivers of higher costs it’s setting us up for more disappointments.”

Daniels said the health law would add costs of between $2.9 billion and $3.6 billion to Indiana’s budget, which is currently $13 billion.

“We’re only just beginning to grapple — reeling might be the term — with what this will mean at the state level,” he said.

He also said that a looming question is whether his administration will set up a state-based exchange or not.

“I just assumed this was something we were ordered to do by the law,” Daniels said. “It’s not so. It is optional. We’re going to spend a lot of time before we decide to do this.”

Daniels lamented the fact that a program started in Indiana to give low-income people private accounts into which they contribute toward their health care but also receive public subsidies — a form of health savings accounts — would likely be eliminated by the new law.

“We will not have cost control in American health care until we are cost controllers,” the governor said, adding that the president’s program assumes most Americans are “too dumb” to make “the admittedly difficult rationing decisions that will always be there as long as an infinite want — immortality — collides with a finite resource: money.”

“Free Speech:
Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. Since 1920, the ACLU has worked to preserve our freedom of speech. Learn more and take action to protect the right to free speech.”

This quote was taken directly from the ACLU’s website, right off their home page. Yet when I checked their website I found nothing on the government’s blatant attempt at silencing our freedom from Linda Douglass’s communication on August 6, 2009. ACLU where are you?

The relationship with the ACLU might be described as a love/hate relationship. They are constantly in everyone’s face over every little infraction of the constitution. Depending on what side of that particular battle you are on you may love their efforts for standing up for what you believe in, or you may hate them for causing you so much grieve over something so trivial. They have served a purpose and got results. Where are they today? How could they remain quiet when the government is asking us to snitch on our neighbors, family and friends?

The White House has issued a warning to Americans.
From the White House.gov website:
“FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS”:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas challenged this action and has asked President Obama to stop this effort.
From Senator Cornyn’s Website:
SEN. CORNYN SEEKS ANSWERS TO PRIVACY CONCERNS; ALSO SUBMITS “FISHY” CLAIMS TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Friday, August 7, 2009
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, released the following statement responding to the White House’s claim that “no one is collecting any names” as well as their apparent refusal to make clear what steps they are taking to purge all names, email addresses and other personal information that they have collected on private citizens as part of their data collection program.

“Of course the White House is collecting names. As I wrote to the President, it is inevitable. Anyone with access to the flag@whitehouse.gov account has access to the names and email addresses that are collected in that account.

“The question is not what the White House is doing, but how and why. How are they purging names and email addresses from this account to protect privacy? Why do they need the forwarded emails, names, and ‘casual conversations’ sent to them instead of just the arguments that they want to rebut?”

Thanks for standing up for our rights Sen. Cornyn. But where is the ACLU?

I was finally able to locate a piece in an article published by FOXNews.com with only a two paragraph statement from the ACLU.