Looks to me like the Dems are trying to hide what they are doing to the country . What does the resulting bill look like and why are they trying to keep the Blue Dog democrats from representing the people who elected them in favor of voting the way the party leaders say to. Big Tent in action once again. Why do people vote for these tools.
*Moderates win Wall St. bill changes*
By: Victoria McGrane
December 9, 2009 09:12 PM EST
Score one for the New Democrats.
The coalition of moderate Democrats, with an assist from the fiscally
conservative Blue Dog Coalition, held up consideration of a crucial Wall
Street reform bill for several hours Wednesday to protest the way
Democratic leadership and the Obama administration's treated some of
their proposals.
By 6:30 p.m., the moderates had won significant concessions from top
Treasury officials on a contentious consumer protection issue.
"The New Dems had concerns [about] a number of the amendments that we
wanted to see either made in order or some of the language included in
the manager's amendment. And we're satisfied that we came to a good
place on this," Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), a leading member of the New
Democrats group and a member of the House Financial Services Committee,
said upon emerging from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office Wednesday
night.
Specifically, the moderates hammered out a compromise on the issue of
whether national banks should be subject to tougher state consumer
protection laws. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank
(D-Mass.) had promised Bean a vote on her amendment to shield national
banks from state rules -- a situation known as pre-emption, since the
federal rules set by the new consumer watchdog would pre-empt those made
by the individual states.
"The differences have been narrowed" on the pre-emption language, Frank
told reporters as he left Pelosi's office a few minutes ahead of Bean.
The reworked pre-emption language will be included in the manager's
amendment, a House Democratic aide said.
Frank described the negotiation as one between Treasury and the New
Democrats, suggesting that it was the Obama administration that opposed
Bean's amendment being ruled in order. Two of Treasury's top officials
were part of the talks -- the department's number two, Deputy Treasury
Secretary Neal Wolin, and Michael Barr, assistant secretary for
financial institutions. Kim Wallace, Treasury's liason to Capitol Hill,
was all present.
The parties also reached agreement on allowing several other amendments,
including one from Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) that would scrap the
stand-alone consumer financial protection agency in favor of a council
of existing regulators. The Minnick amendment was deemed in order by the
Rules Committee later Wednesday night.
Frank said he thinks the Minnick amendment will be defeated, and New
Democrats aren't expected to support it. But they did fight for it to be
ruled in order as a matter of fairness, aides said.
The trouble started when news leaked Wednesday that the White House and
leadership wanted the House Rules Committee to bar Bean's amendment from
a floor vote. New Democrats and Blue Dogs threatened to oppose the rule
to allow general debate on the Wall Street reform bill and leadership
found themselves without enough votes to proceed to the crucial measure.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) played the role of lead
negotiator between Treasury and leadership and the moderate Democrats.
He worked the phones in the afternoon as it became clear that the
moderates were in revolt, making calls to White House Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and members of the New
Democrat coalition.
That led to the talks in Pelosi's office, which consisted of Frank and
leadership in one room, New Dems and financial services staff in
another, and the central talks in a conference room where Bean went
head-to-head with Wolin and Barr for three hours on the preemption
language, said a source familiar with the talks. Hoyer presided, keeping
Frank and the leadership appraised of the situation.
Hoyer's work earned him some witty praise from Frank, who quipped that
only Scandinavians should be allowed to negotiate such matters during
one of Hoyer's updates to the leadership room, a Democratic leadership
aide recounted.
Wednesday's logjam was the result of long-simmering tensions between
these moderate Democrats and the more liberal leadership.
During the committee markup of the consumer financial protection agency,
Frank persuaded Bean and her supporters -- which included most, if not
all, of the 15 New Dems on the financial services committee -- to hold
off on the amendment. He feared that its passage would sink the
underlying bill since Republicans planned to support Bean's amendment
but the vote against the final bill. Meanwhile, liberal members of the
committee had warned they would vote against the bill if Bean's
amendment passed.
When the talks in Pelosi's office wrapped up, the House returned from
its protracted recess and began debate on the general rule for the Wall
Street reform bill. After the vote on that rule, the House will proceed
to three hours of general debate. On Thursday, the House is expected to
vote on a second rule for the bill that will detail which amendments are
in order and then proceed to debate on those amendments.
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC
<http://www.irides.com>
Readers' Comments (3)
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1.
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dudeinohio
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Reply #1
Dec. 9, 2009 - 10:59 PM EST
And Republicans are irrelevant as usual. (Thank God for that!)
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CrispianDay
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Party: Democrat
Reply #2
Dec. 9, 2009 - 11:41 PM EST
Well, good luck to you. You have reported on everything the
Repub's said. You did not say so much as CONGRATULATIONS to the
President on getting back 200 BILLION. You don't give him credit
for anything.
You may want to consider your investments. The Repugs you're gonna
put in power are gonna deregulate so much you won't be sure of a
CD. They LOVE to take all the money.
Oh, it's Palin or Huckabee. Either way better learn to speak in
tongues and writhe on the floor.
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3.
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teej
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Reply #3
Dec. 10, 2009 - 1:19 AM EST
dudeinohio: Dec. 9, 2009 - 10:59 PM EST
And Republicans are irrelevant as usual. (Thank God for that!)
Jeez, man.. put down your KoolAid already.
Don't you see how difficult it is getting to figure out who is
relevant in this circus?
Don't worry about Republicans - they are a minority party right now.
We The People should be more concerd about the Denocrats right
now. Here is why.
Democratic Party has become the party of shameless corruption.
Deception at every turn is their M.O. Political coercion,
Pay-To-Play, bullying, bribery and being dramatically out of touch
with their constituents have quickly become the staples of the
Obama-era democrats. all
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