GOP Plans To “Block” Democrats Regulatory Reform Ideas

June 5, 2009

The Facts

With the Democrats controlling congress, the Republicans are working on their own bill to challenge the regulatory reform bill the Democrats are expected to unveil later this month. According to an article by CNBC, the GOP has been quietly working on their own package “for months”.

The article goes on to say “[GOP] meetings may even involve the participation of corporate leaders and trade groups”, and “the GOP version has been a well-kept secret”. CNBC claims to have had an extensive briefing on the GOP’s working proposal.

My View

Three non-surprises, then on to the good stuff. First, I’m not surprised that the GOP is working on their own package, but I rather doubt they’ve been working on it “for months”. (They don’t dare come out with another “alternate budget” proposal — you remember that one — the one without any numbers in it?) No doubt they started working on the current proposal when the details of the Democrats plan begin to emerge. They wanted to be sure they were “against” what ever was in the Democrats version. Second, I would have been shocked and probably would have gone into cardiac arrest had the GOP not invited their corporate friends to participate in the structure of their proposal. And third, why would anyone be surprised that the GOP chose CNBC to “leak” the details to? CNBC is the GOP’s public relations firm on corporate and business matters.

Now a little good (GOP) stuff. According to the “leaked” information, government bailouts would be ban. And the Federal Reserve would have limits placed on them. Damn good ideas, from my point of view. And there are a couple of others I’m kind of so-so or ok on. Other ideas are in direct contrast to some of the Demo’s plans, such as the “super agency” idea. Those direct contrast could turn out to be good or bad, but you can bet they will favor Wall Street.

As I said, this latter could go both ways as far as “good idea; bad idea”. But regardless of what kind of regulatory agency or agencies are formed, Wall Street is going to do their dead-level best and spend as much OPM (other people’s money) to find a way around any and all regulations and/or regulatory agency(s). That could include buying off regulatory heads (as they’ve often done in the past), pay off the right politicians to pass undermining laws (as they’ve done in the past), and just outright ignoring laws knowing that if any later punishment is dolled out, it will be a simple flick on the hand (as they’ve done in the past).

It will be interesting to see what the final version is. But with my passion over this issue, you can bet I will learn every detail and who/which party put what in and who/which party insisted on what wasn’t allowed in. I may have to get some help on understanding some of those “written so only a Harvard lawyer can decipher” points, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it, thank you!