Today, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) at 2:30 om EST will announce his intent to introduce legislation to repeal Sec 9006 of the recently enacted Health Care bill that will provide relief to millions of small business owners who will otherwise face an enormous tax reporting burden.
Lungren: “At a time when we should be crafting policies to increase a sustainable economic recovery, we should be removing burdens on small business rather than imposing new ones.”
Lungren serves as Ranking Member on the House Administration Committee in addition to serving on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.--------------
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided to force a vote on taking up the bill, despite the fact that bipartisan negotiations are ongoing. Therefore, the Senate resumes consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3217, the Dodd financial regulation bill and will vote at 5 pm on cloture on the motion to proceed.The Hill reported yesterday, “The office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Sunday said it will go ahead with a key procedural vote on the financial regulatory bill Monday even though it appears Democrats do not have the votes to approve it. Reid will hold the vote Monday afternoon even though the top two senators on the banking committee said Sunday they do not have an agreement on the bill, which all GOP senators currently oppose.” And the AP adds, “With a showdown vote looming, Democrats are resisting Republican appeals for a broad compromise on financial overhaul legislation and are eager to test whether GOP unity will crack in an anti-Wall Street political climate.”
Reid seems determined to force a vote today even though he’s had a letter for more than a week from all 41 Republican Senators stating, “We are united in our opposition to the partisan legislation reported by the Senate Banking Committee.” Republicans are hopeful that bipartisan negotiations can produce an acceptable bill that doesn’t institutionalize bailouts as the Dodd bill currently does.
By pushing for this vote today, it appears Democrats are more interested in hunting for headlines than in getting bipartisan legislation. Indeed, a spokesman for Reid told Politico’s Mike Allen, “[A] vote against even opening debate on holding Wall Street accountable is a vote to protect Wall Street.” And The Washington Post reports, “Elsewhere, lawmakers will be preparing to condemn the alleged sins of Wall Street's past and also wrestling over how to prevent such excesses in the future. Top executives from Goldman Sachs, beset by charges that the bank misled its clients by selling them mortgage investments secretly designed to fail, will face questions Tuesday about how the firm profited from betting against the U.S. housing market.”
Again to summarize this Democrat bill developed again behind doors, Americans for Limited Government has summarized the legislation in a PDF document:
S. 3217 would authorize the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Secretary to put into receivership any company that is deemed to be in danger of default that is "substantially engaged in activities… that are financial in nature" and give unlimited power to the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary the power to define what constitutes "financial" activities. As a result, the Federal Reserve could declare any company or institution a "non-bank financial company" subject to seizure under the "orderly liquidation fund."And those don’t appear to be the only political questions in play. The Hill reports today, “Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigative office said Sunday it had begun an investigation into whether charges against Goldman Sachs were politically timed. SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz wrote Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Sunday to notify the lawmaker that he had opened an investigation at the congressman's request into whether the commission's civil charges against the Wall Street giant were coordinated in order to boost the case for the Wall Street reform legislation before Congress.”
The bill also allows the FDIC to levy assessments on about 60 bank holding and insurance companies totaling $50 billion or more in consolidated assets to finance the revolving $50 billion "orderly liquidation fund" that customers of financial products and savers will pay for with higher costs.
There would be no limit on how much money could flow through the "orderly liquidation fund" in total, nor would it require any Congressional authorization for firms to be seized, the funds to be spent, or new assessments to be levied by the FDIC to replenish the fund. This will create moral hazard of the first order, and institutionalize "too big to fail" for all time.
And, the bill would shield from judicial review any government seizure of a company: "no court shall have jurisdiction over… any claim or action for payment from, or any action seeking a determination of rights with respect to, the assets of any covered financial company for which the Corporation has been appointed receiver."
Despite the serious Fifth Amendment due process property rights concerns raised by the lack of judicial review, almost all of these provisions have completely escaped the scrutiny of elected leaders, media outlets, and the American people alike. More attention needs to be brought to them, and the only way to do that is to vote against proceeding to it. This is most certainly an instance where the more American people find out about this takeover, the less they will like it.
In spite of Democrats’ political motivations, Republicans are still interested in getting a bill that doesn’t perpetuate bailouts. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox’s Chris Wallace yesterday, “We need to have creditors understand that they're likely to be treated very, very similarly to the way they would be in bankruptcy law in this country. That kind of stability, I think, is a better place to start in the Senate than this partisan Dodd bill that came out of committee without a single Republican vote.” There’s certainly the possibility of a bipartisan bill, but Democrats are only making it more difficult to get a bill if they decide politics will be put before good policy.
Tags: Washington, D.C., US Senate, US House, US Congress, financial regulation To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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