Yesterday was an exceptionally good day for the White House: BP announced that (for now at least) the oil vomiting in to the Gulf of Mexico had halted and financial reform passed.
But was this a turning point on two fronts and a positive turn for the Obama administration — or just a lull? In the case of BP, it has yet to be determined if the cap will be a harbinger of a more permanent fix or a temporary or ineffective one. And in the case of financial reform, in terms of legislative accomplishments if did lift Barack to the higher rung of Presidents but the battle over financial reform is far from over.
The Christian Science Monitor lays out what’s ahead — and if you thought this was it for a while on this issue you are deluding yourself.
First, here’s the CSM’s excellent summary of the bill:
The law, which passed the Senate today by a vote of 60 to 39 [three Northeast Republicans joined the Democrats with otherwise solid GOP opposition]:
• Sets up an advance warning system for banks deemed too big to fail.
• Ends taxpayer-funded bailouts.
• Imposes new transparency and rules on a $600 trillion unregulated derivatives market.
• Sets new limits on speculation by banks.
• Launches a consumer protection agency with broad powers.
[Quoting Obama:]“Because of this reform, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes. There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts, period,” said President Obama in remarks at the White House after the Senate vote.
But minutes after the bill was passed Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) — who is likely to become House Majority Leader if the GOP retakes the House — called for the bill’s repeal:
Minutes after the Wall Street reform bill passed, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called for its repeal, saying the legislation penalizes Main Street bankers for the crimes of a few on Wall Street.
“I think it ought to be repealed,” Boehner told reporters at his weekly press conference Thursday. “I think the financial reform bill is ill-conceived. I think it’s going to make credit harder for the American people to get — clearly harder for businesses to get. And the fact that it’s going to punish every banker in America for the sins of a few on Wall Street, I think is unwise. On top of that, I think that it institutionalizes “Too Big To Fail” and gives far too much authority to federal bureaucrats to bail out any company in America they decide ought be bailed out.”
Boehner ran through some common Republican talking points, slamming the administration and the financial reform package and ending with a tribute to the virtues of transparency.
“There are common sense things that we should do to plug the holes in the regulatory system that were there, and to bring more transparency to financial transactions,” he said.
Eddie Vale, a spokesperson for the AFL-CIO, had a ready reply.
“First Boehner wants to take away working families health care benefits. Now he also wants to return Wall Street and the big banks back to the power they had when they destroyed our economy” said Vale in an email Thursday. “It could be no clearer for working families in 2010 that there is a clear choice between continuing to move forward to make the economy work for everyone again or go backwards to the Bush years where corporations and Wall Street ran wild.”
And, the Monitor notes, there’s a big reason why this issue will remain on the burner — and burning — for some time to come:
But the 2,300 page overhaul also requires drafting some 200 regulations, as well as studies and extended timelines before many features of the law take effect. The fight to ensure that the intent of Congress is reflected in regulations could be as protracted as the two-year battle to pass reform.
Responding to charges that Congress had punted all the important decisions to regulators, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) of Connecticut, who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said: “Those are things you cannot legislate: getting good people, committed people, who then in turn hire good people, attract good people to come into these regulatory bodies to do the job.
“I’ll plan on having oversight hearings as early as September to bring in the regulatory bodies to ask them exactly what their plans are on how they intend to move forward with the regulatory obligations bill that this bill has imposed,” he added.
Senator Snowe, who agreed to back the bill after concessions for small and seasonal businesses, says that she is considering proposals to ensure that the rules produced by the Treasury Department and agencies to implement the law are in line with such agreements. “The next phase is a regulatory one, and Congress must be sure that that is truly reflective of the legislative intent,” she says.
Public interest groups – a key partner in drafting the finance reform bill – praised the finance reform legislation as providing a strong framework for regulators. “But Congress is going to have to do a better job of oversight than it did over the last eight years.
The fight over the first stage of financial reform is over; the fight over the first stage of financial reform begins…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.