Dear #Resistance:
It's been a while since we talked and we thought it'd be nice to catch up. Have they impeached Trump yet? Hmm…well if you aren't busy let's chat a bit about something we can resist together! The Senate this week is slated to take up the so-called #BankLobbyistBill which is legislation sponsored by the Senate Banking Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) that would rewrite parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the landmark financial regulation overhaul enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis.
“Sixteen Senate Democrats ignored warnings from progressives and joined with Republicans on Tuesday to advance a wide-ranging deregulation bill that lawmakers are expected to pass in the coming days.”
Senate advances bank deregulation bill as Democrats break ranks, Politico, Zachary Warmbodt
Look at these idiotic “moderate democrats” that co-sponsored S.2155 – Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
Slow clap to the following "Progressive All Americans," if the combined Progressive Punch Score of this team of cosponsors was a Fraternity they would all be put on academic probation, get kicked off campus and quite possibly lose their charter with national. The only member of this dream team who received an "A" from Progressive Punch is Senator Gary Peters (D-MI).
Democratic Cosponsors of S. 2155
This table includes the name of the Democratic cosponsor, the date they sponsored and their Progressive Punch score. To view the Senator's OpenSecrets.org industry level contributions click their name. If you want to view the Senator's scorecard on Progressive Punch click on their letter grade in the column.
| Democratic Cosponsor | Date Cosponsored | Score |
| Sen. Donnelly, Joe [D-IN]* | 11/16/2017 | F |
| Sen. Heitkamp, Heidi [D-ND]* | 11/16/2017 | F |
| Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]* | 11/16/2017 | B |
| Sen. Warner, Mark R. [D-VA]* | 11/16/2017 | F |
| Sen. McCaskill, Claire [D-MO]* | 11/16/2017 | D |
| Sen. Manchin, Joe, III [D-WV]* | 11/16/2017 | F |
| Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA]* | 11/16/2017 | D |
| Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI]* | 11/16/2017 | A |
| Sen. Bennet, Michael F. [D-CO]* | 12/06/2017 | F |
| Sen. Carper, Thomas R. [D-DE] | 12/06/2017 | F |
| Sen. Jones, Doug [D-AL] | 12/06/2017 | F |
It’s good to see the bastions of banking interests included…you know Alabama, Colorado, WV, MT, ND represented. How many bankers do you work in Montana? Well according to the Montana Bankers Association there are 48 distinct member banks, about 12 of which are just branches of the same bank. Not exactly the type of industry numbers worth turning the financial world on its head for right? It’s not about the community banks, it isn't about their states and it certainly isn’t about you or me.
For a brief explanation of what this bill entails and the ramifications, let’s hear what Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has to say to rally her fellow Senators against the bill:
“"The people in Congress may have forgotten the crash 10 years ago, but I guarantee that people across this country have not forgotten the pain that these giant banks caused,” “They do not want to see Congress move toward deregulating these banks.”
Elizabeth Warren in Comments on Senate Floor
David Dayen of the Intercept has been dissecting and synthesizing the impact of this legislation better than anyone. The whole piece is brilliant but this passage is a must read:
The discussion turned to an obscure congressional bill, S.2155, pitched by its bipartisan supporters mainly as a vehicle to deliver regulatory relief to community banks and, 10 years after the financial crisis, to make needed technical fixes to the landmark Wall Street reform law, Dodd-Frank.
But Citi’s Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach told the trade reporters he thought that some bigger banks — like, say, Citigroup — should get taken care of in the bill as well. He wanted Congress to loosen rules around how the bank could go about lending and . The specific mechanism to do that was to fiddle with what’s known as the supplementary leverage ratio, or SLR, a key capital requirement for the nation’s largest banks. This simple ratio sets how much equity banks must carry compared to total assets like loans.”
Revenge of the Stadium Banks, The Intercept, David Dayen
David Dayen knows a thing or two about the foreclosure crisis. His book Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud should be required reading on this topic. Here's what he says about what this means:
“A hopeful nation — and the president himself — expected that the Senate would begin debate on major gun policy reform next week, but instead a confounding scenario has emerged: In the typically gridlocked Congress, with the Trump legislative agenda mostly stalled, members of both parties will come together to roll back financial rules, during the 10th anniversary of the biggest banking crisis in nearly a century. And it’s happening with virtually no media attention whatsoever.Aside from the gifts to Citigroup and other big banks, the bill undermines fair lending rules that work to counter racial discrimination and rolls back regulation and oversight on large regional banks that aren’t big enough to be global names, but have enough cash to get a stadium named after themselves. In the name of mild relief for community banks, these institutions — which have been christened “stadium banks” by congressional staff opposing the legislation — are punching a gaping hole through Wall Street reform.”
Revenge of the Stadium Banks, The Intercept, David Dayen
This is serious business and some Democratic legislators are fighting the good fight. Here is what Senator Warren tweeted out:
The Senate – with the support of some Democrats – is set to start debate on a bill to roll back regulations on the same big banks we bailed out a few years ago. If we lose the final vote next week, we’ll be paving the way for the next big crash. https://t.co/i7HO3AvNJ9
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2018
Warren is hardly the only Democrat who has joined advocacy groups in opposing this horrific bill, which would gut the already limited Dodd-Frank regulations put in place by the Obama administration following the 2008 crash, Sherrod Brown (D-OH) also has come out against the bill asking fellow Senators:
“Are you with the big banks and the Wall Street operators who wrecked the economy and got big bailouts, or are you with families and workers?"
Sherrod Brown in Comments on the Senate Flooor
Here's what Senator Sanders (I-VT) said in a press release:
"This banking bill is a disaster. The Wall Street crash of 2008 showed the American people how fraudulent many of these large banks are. The last thing we should be doing is deregulating them. As the Congressional Budget Office reported today, the bill that the Senate will be considering this week will 'increase the likelihood that a large financial firm with assets of between $100 billion and $250 billion would fail.' Why would any member of Congress vote to move us closer to another taxpayer bailout of large financial institutions? This bill must be defeated," said Sanders, the ranking member of the Budget Committee”
Press Release from Senator Bernie Sanders, "CBO: Bank Deregulation Bill Would Lead to More Bailouts" Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Sincerely,
Mary Angela Perna
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