Zing! Obama: McConnell made 'cynical and deceptive assertion' on financial reform bill

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/92809-obama-mcconnell-made-cynical-and-deceptive-assertion-on-reform-bill


Obama: McConnell made 'cynical and deceptive assertion' on financial reform bill
By Sean J. Miller - 04/17/10 06:00 AM ET


Taking direct aim at his Republican critics, President Barack Obama promised Saturday there would be no additional bailouts offered to the financial industry.

"Never again will taxpayers be on the hook because a financial company is deemed 'too big to fail,'" he said in his weekly address.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the Senate floor this week and said the Democrats' pending financial regulatory reform bill in the Senate "not only allows for taxpayer-funded bailouts of Wall Street banks, it institutionalizes them."

Obama said McConnell made a "cynical and deceptive assertion."

"He knows that it would do just the opposite," Obama said. "Every day we don’t act, the same system that led to bailouts remains in place -- with the exact same loopholes and the exact same liabilities. And if we don’t change what led to the crisis, we’ll doom ourselves to repeat it. That’s the truth."

"Opposing reform will leave taxpayers on the hook if a crisis like this ever happens again," he added.

Obama said a "failure of responsibility" from Wall Street and Washington cost the country "8 million jobs lost, trillions in savings erased {and} countless dreams diminished or denied."

Obama said the Democrats' financial reform will close the "loopholes" that led to the economic crisis.

"It’s these loopholes that allowed executives to take risks that not only endangered their companies, but also our entire economy," he said. "And we’re going to put in place new rules so that big banks and financial institutions will pay for the bad decisions they make -- not taxpayers."

He closed by saying, "We will hold Wall Street accountable."

[Clio the Leo]

1. Love how he talked about McConnell and Luntz' "backroom deal" with Wallstreet. NT

[Bitwit1234]

2. Why in the hell hasn't the Obama administration been

striking back at the obstructionist republicans until now. If they had been hammering away at them all along we would not be perceived as being weak kneed. And maybe we could have rammed more stuff thru. I think it is time Obama put his appointees out there and told the republicans we are going to get them thru. Strike strike get going folks.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. It's called "giving them enough rope"

The Republicans had a whole year to cooperate. There a good chunk of the electorate who aren't partisan and who aren't stupid. They really will (unlike the Teabaggers) vote their economic interest and for the candidate who appears to be on his side. Obama gave the Republicans a year to get on the bus, and now he's going to expose them for what they are.

[Enthusiast]

18. Jeff, I pray you are right. nt

[MUAD_DIB]

9. Probably the Obama administrations has been building a case for that since

they have only been in office for 15 months and the HCR was taking up all the oxygen in the media's attention.

[impik]

3. And without even mentioning their names. :) He's awesome.

[Enrique]

6. ?

he did specify McConnell, which is what makes it a strong statement. If he just said "some people" or whatever, it would be less awesome.

[impik]

11. Yea, but he was

Naming the fool, without actually using the fool's name. He always does that when he want to show how low he thinks of someone.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

4. This could be huge....

A sizeable chunk of the Teabagger anger is directed toward those bail-outs. Except for those members who aren't just old-fashioned racists, Obama's initiative could cause a serious splintering in this group. If it becomes clear that the Democrats are trying to prevent a new round of bailouts and the Republicans are trying to all-but-ensure one, we could make some political hay out of this.

[Jennicut]

13. And yet they have a high approval of Bush. Makes me wonder about their brains...

Most of the bailout was under Bush.

[Cosmocat]

14. Hogsnot ...

They will go radio silent on it ...

They are republicans afraid to carry the flag, and even at that they hate democrats ... Jesus, this president CUT taxes and they have been throwing fits about taxes for a year and a half now after not being anywhere to be seen the prior 8 years ...

If they Ds are for it, they will be against it or go crawl in a hole until there is something else they can get all deranged over ...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. I"m not sure they have that option....

41 Republican Senators just signed an agreement to oppose Financial Regulation. If Obama puts forward a plan between now and October, they either have to walk back from that statement or publicly defend Goldman Sachs. I'm pretty sure that yesterday's indictment wasn't a massive coincidence. I think Obama wants to have this debate play out against a backdrop of the greed and fraud that has been taking place, and then double-dog dare the Republicans to oppose it.

[saltpoint]

7. It's a surreal world in which Mitch McConnell is a Senator at all.

While there are powerful forces who can expect McConnell to do their bidding I don't think McConnell, down deep, way down deep where abide sinew and veins, wants to be a U.S. Senator, or in the Congress. I don't think he knows why he is there apart from his knowing very little else to do, apart from his having done it for so long he long ago stopped questioning it.

The men in the shadows want him to oppose finance reform so he does. The men in the shadows have fat checkbooks. They have big Rolodexes. They hold power lunches. Also down deep McConnell knows these men are not on the side of a Constitutional republic but he never raises this issue with them because it would upset them, cause them to put down their shiny silverware at their Beltway power lunches and glare at him incredulously across the table. Their faces would register dismay and frustration and then retaliation were he to align against them or say or do anything that would be construed as aligning against their dark wishes.

McConnell isn't thinking that he will not be thanked, except by the shadow people. And not by anyone else.

Obama is exactly right on this one and said exactly the right thing without actually having to mention the shadow people.

I can't say when in his political career McConnell became, consciously or not, a whimpering tool for the shadow men. But he says and does things that give us a sense of how tightly they have him wired from some remote location. Almost no one in the nation believes McConnell is right to oppose this reform measure, and almost everyone understands that Obama's effort indicts the small percentage of people whose greed is felt to eclipse the public good.

McConnell gambles that the shadow people will be grateful to him if his obstruction of reform prevails. If it does not prevail, though, he is still wired to people who never cared about him or about democracy in the first place.

[niceypoo]

10. +++10000000+++

[Cha]

17. Thanks saltpoint, that's the exact

impression I got when I saw mitch mcconnell give his frank luntz talking points the other day.

I don't know if I've ever heard him before, having assiduously avoided it, but when I saw him speak the other day it's as if he were a windup robut. And, I was extra appreciative that I wasn't one of them and had to support that vacant stare in the name of the gNOp.

[saltpoint]

20. Hi, Cha. It is kind of eerie if you look closely at the Puke spokesteam

when they're on one of their obstructionist rampages.

McConnell, in particular, seems like a shell of a human borged out by his Wall Street masters. Entirely a creepy chinless zombie thing goin'...

[Enthusiast]

19. Nice Post!

Keep them coming, saltpoint!

[saltpoint]

21. Hey there.

It's always a pleasure running into you on these boards, Enthusiast.

:hi:

[Enthusiast]

22. Hey

[NJmaverick]

8. K&R

[Overseas]

12. K&R ! //nt

[vaberella]

15. Go Mr. President. I adore you!! ^_^ n/t