House Republicans want us to believe that by gutting Wall Street
reform, we can somehow end bailouts and have a healthier economy…
Huffington Post seems to think Donald Trump’s pre
tender campaign is entertainment rather than politics.
This leads you to wonder if they have been paying attention over there
to the United States House of Representatives and Boehner’s
shenanigans for the past six-and-a-half years.
Perhaps to fill us with dismay, Boehner has assigned
the task of lying to the American people this week to House Financial
Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, yet another in a long line
of dishonest Texas Republicans, who, we are told,
“discusses Republicans’ commitment to protect hardworking families and
small business owners from the job-crushing Dodd-Frank law, which
President Obama signed five years ago this week.”
So here we go, digging into things Obama (not the shrub!)
did years ago rather than doing some work today – say, creating jobs,
taxing the wealthy or corporations, or at least actually regulating,
instead of pretending to stand up to Wall Street. Here is the big lie,
the talking point around which all that follows is based:
KEY QUOTE: “If we want strong economic growth, more
freedom and an end to bailouts, it’s time we commit to making sure this
anniversary is Dodd-Frank’s last. House Republicans are working to do
just that. Together, we can end Wall Street bailouts, have a healthier
economy, and protect consumer choice.”
Remarks of Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas
Weekly Republican Lie Spew
Financial Services Committee Hearing Room
July 18, 2015
Hello, I’m Jeb Hensarling, Congressman for the Fifth District of Texas and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Five years ago this week President Obama signed into
law the Dodd-Frank Act. You may not have heard of Dodd-Frank, but it’s
essentially Obamacare for our economy and your household finances.
And just like Obamacare, Dodd-Frank has left us with fewer choices, higher costs and less freedom.
Now, the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession
that followed devastated millions of Americans. But instead of
preventing the crisis, misguided Washington policies helped lead us into
it – policies that either strong-armed or enticed financial
institutions into loaning money to people to buy homes they couldn’t
afford to keep.
That was wrong.
It wasn’t deregulation that caused the crisis. It was Washington’s dumb regulations.
Then, and now, House Republicans have offered an
alternative to Dodd-Frank that would have ended taxpayer-funded bailouts
and protected consumers.
But in typical Washington fashion, Democrats instead
by passing a 2,300-page bill that did not solve the crisis but in my
ways made it worse. When President Obama signed Dodd-Frank into law
five years ago with much fanfare and celebration, we were told it would
‘lift the economy,’ ‘end too big to fail’ and ‘increase financial
stability.’ It didn’t happen.
But, Dodd-Frank did nothing to reform Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, which were at the epicenter of the crisis. It enshrined
taxpayer-funded bailouts and ‘too big to fail’ into law, and it imposed
400 new burdensome, job-destroying regulations upon our economy.
And the harm to consumers has been real, very real.
We continue to be mired in lackluster, halting economic growth. Middle
income paychecks are nearly 12,000 dollars less compared to the average
post-war economic recovery. It is now harder for credit-worthy
Americans to buy a home. In fact, one-out-of-five who borrowed to buy a
home just five years ago will not meet the underwriting requirements of
Dodd-Frank’s mortgage rules. According to the Federal Reserve, that’ll
hit roughly one-third of Hispanic and African-American borrowers.
Since Dodd-Frank, the big banks have gotten bigger
and the small banks are now fewer. Today there are fewer community
banks and credit unions serving the needs of small businesses and
families. Local financial institutions tell us they can’t keep up with
the sheer weight, volume and complexity of Dodd-Frank’s regulations. In
fact, because of Dodd-Frank, we’re losing on average one community
financial institution per day. It’s no wonder that small business
deaths outnumber small business births for the first time in 35 years.
It is also now more expensive for American companies to raise working capital that’s needed to grow and create jobs.
Services that we all once took for granted – like
free checking – are being curtailed or eliminated because of
Dodd-Frank. Before, 75 percent of banks offered free checking. Just
two years after Dodd-Frank became law, that number was cut almost in
half.
And bank fees have also increased due to
Dodd-Frank’s costs. This has led to a rise in the number of low and
moderate income Americans who simply can’t afford to maintain a checking
or savings account.
Not long after the financial crisis, we heard the
cry from the Left to “Occupy Wall Street.” But hardworking taxpayers
aren’t interested in Occupying Wall Street. They just want to quit
bailing it out.
Yet Dodd-Frank enshrines “Too Big to Fail” into law.
It gives Washington bureaucrats the power to officially designate
large financial firms “Too Big to Fail” and then makes them eligible for
bailouts. That’s wrong. We have to absolutely end bailouts — period.
It is evident that Dodd-Frank has made us less
prosperous and less free. It has meant lost opportunities and
frustrated dreams for millions hoping to start a small business, buy a
home or plan for a secure retirement.
If we want strong economic growth, more freedom and
an end to bailouts, it’s time we commit to making sure this anniversary
is Dodd-Frank’s last anniversary.
House Republicans are working to do just that.
Together, we can end Wall Street bailouts, have a healthier economy, and
protect consumer choice.
Thanks for listening.
Obviously, it was not regulating Wall Street that caused the Great Recession of 2008. It was deregulation. The
Dodd-Frank Act of 2008,
like the Affordable Care Act, may not be perfect, but it did not make
things worse; it made things better. But this is a world, remember in
which freedom is tyranny and tyranny is freedom, and where giving money
to rich people somehow makes poor people prosperous.
The lies presented here are both profound and
obvious, egregious distortions of the past. Hensarling dismisses the
#Occupy movement as somehow ungenuine, but his unsupported claims do not
diminish the justified outrage of working class Americans at Wall
Street, banking, and corporate misdeeds.
Hillary Clinton has dealt with the Republican cabal’s fake concern for small businesses, and President Obama has already vetoed Republican attempts to gut Wall Street reform and destroy the economy all over again for the benefit of the 1 percent.
This is more of the same song and dance we have
become all too familiar with, the same tired lies of bygone years. As
before, there is nothing here beyond vague Republican assurances that
the Republican cabal loves us and that by deregulating wealthy corporations and
banks, our beneficent masters will see to our every need.
Talk is cheap, but this sort of talk, put into action, would be very expensive indeed.
