President Barack Obama has taken the United States one more giant step towards socialism by ramming through the Senate his financial regulation bill.
The bill authorizes the secretary of the Treasury — a political appointee — to seize any financial company (bank or nonbank) simply because, in his opinion, it is too big to fail and in danger of insolvency.
This power can be used for political retribution, pressure for campaign funding, or any other abuse bureaucratic whim or partisan politics can conceive. It is a power Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez would love to have!
The legislation also requires that any business that extends credit, in any form, to clear the loan instrument in advance with the new consumer protection agency. The backlog of pending applications will strangle consumer credit.
And the bill fails to do the one thing it must do — regulate derivatives and make them transparent. Senator Chris Dodd, D-Conn., bowed to pressure from his sponsors on Wall Street and deleted the regulatory provision and set up a commission to study the situation for two years!
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., protested the cop-out with a no vote against the legislation.
So how did it pass?
Four Republicans sold out, that´s how!
Among the RINOs were, of course, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine. But, surprisingly, Scott Brown, R Mass., the newly elected Massachusetts miracle defected as did the normally stalwart Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Now the federal government has effectively taken over about one-third of our national economy by passing Obamacare and regulatory reform in almost the same breath.
Repealing this regulatory travesty must be high on our 2011 agenda!
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© Dick Morris & Eileen McGann