Why is this not surprising? Nineteen banks receiving taxpayer bailouts spent $32.4 million lobbying the federal government during the first nine months of this year, USA Today reported. Combined, these banks are receiving $159 billion in bailout aid. And they have no plans to stop lobbying. But as Kathleen Day of the Center for Responsible Lending noted: “It’s ridiculous that the perpetrators of this mess should be the people dictating to Congress how to get out of it.”
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9 Comments
And the Pelosi Congress does what the banks want. This is surprising to anyone?
All detailed in “The Wrecking Crew how conservatives rule” by Thomas Frank.
Why blame just the Pelosi Congress? No Republican yet has been able to tell me why it was that Republicans had total control of White House and Congress for 6 years and they allowed this to happen? This Wall Street mess did not start overnight and it sure was not started by just Democrats.
It’s the treasury that is controlling the disbursement of funds.
Phantom makes a good point. Didn’t Paulson get one of those golden parachutes when he left Wall Street before becoming the Treasury Secretary? How can we trust him to do what is fair – isn’t he really just one of the Wall Street fat cats?
Criminee. NO KIDDING!!! Is ANYONE remotely surprised by this “revelation?”
And this was with a democratic House – you think this will change with democrats in control of both houses and the White House?
Nope. Not one iota, not one jot, not one tittle. Some things never change.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Yup.
BTW – as long as Congress is making policies and regulations that so directly impact banking/finance, or for that matter business of any kind, it is inevitable that lobbying will take place.
In fact, from the business’ perspective, it would be irresponsible NOT to lobby Congress.
Want to remove the influence of lobbyist for big interests? Get government largely out of the business of regulating business. There is no other way; as long as one exists, the other will. And that will be so no matter which party controls government.
It’s the nature of the beast. It is also why, no matter what the rhetoric, those with money and connections will always be able to “rig” the system; they will see that favorable tax/regulatory policies are written into the law.
No matter which party is in power.
Paulson coming out today and stating the money is for helping the finance community, and not industry is a pretty clear indication of where his heart is.
He is in favor of helping out other financial institutions that are not regulated by the fed.