There will be a kazillion articles and diaries written about the bill for financial regulation, and most will deal with what isn't in the bill that they wanted or how the bill was weakened. I'll leave it to financial gurus to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly.
This diary is to rejoice for a moment that it got done. The bill seems likely to be approved and to the President by July 4th. For a President who is often described as weak, indecisive, too this, too that, the bottom line is.....he gotter done.
The following are excerpts of how it got done and how others are reacting to it. In the words of Vice President Biden, "this is a f%@#ing big deal.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/
--Final language for financial reform is more or less done. The marathon 20-hour session that only wrapped up a few hours ago saw House and Senate negotiators run out of paper and conferees fall asleep at the table, but ultimately produced a product that (likely) has the support to make it to the president's desk by July 4 and (certainly) has the potency to change the face of the U.S. financial sector.
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
At 5:08 a.m. Friday morning, just before dawn on Capitol Hill and minutes before lawmakers were expected to make a historic agreement on new financial regulations, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D., Pa.) made one final motion.He proposed naming the 2,000 page bill, which has led to bitter debates and prompted fundamental questions about the government’s role in markets after its two chief authors, Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.).Mr. Kanjorski wanted to call it the Frank-Dodd Act, but Mr. Frank quickly made him change it to Dodd-Frank. (It’ll only be the Dodd/Frank Act if it’s signed into law...so it’s still a bill for at least another week).It was perhaps one of the most bipartisan votes of the entire debate. Unanimous. And a standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans. A teary-eyed Mr. Frank exchanged a few hugs before he sat back down and prepared to wrap up debate of the "conference" committee bill.
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http://swampland.blogs.time.com/...
Assuming final passage, the 111th Congress may well go down among the most prolific sessions in history. It is still unclear if Democrats can match their record of passing sweeping legislation with successes in selling the public on those reforms. The stimulus and health care have proved difficult challenges on that front, but financial reform is likely a different beast -- it was more popular from the outset, and gives Democrats a populist deliverable to trumpet in the march toward November
http://www.politico.com/...
The new bank tax also spurred sharp exchanges from tired and testy lawmakers overnight. "Why is it that Congress always sees the need to raise taxes on the American people in the dead of night at 3 o’clock in the morning?" asked Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.).
Dodd shot back that the amount of the tax could effectively be paid for if Wall Streeters were willing to forego their bonuses. Those executive’s firms "are alive because the American taxpayer wrote a check," Dodd thundered, referring to the $700 billion bank bailout plan. "To ask them to forego their bonuses . . . ought not to be a lot to ask."
http://www.politico.com/...
By 4 a.m., the lawmakers were anxious to wrap up, but they hit yet another snag: No more paper for the copiers.
"The reason for the delay is because they ran out of Xerox paper -- true story," Frank explained. "Next time, Mr. Chairman, we're going to Tweet you our responses."
Pages
http://www.politico.com/...
--TOMORROW’S NEWSPAPERS TODAY -- Two legs of the triple crown: This means President Obama will sign health reform and Wall Street reform within four months of each other. Plus there’s the likelihood he’ll get some sort of energy-climate bill by year’s end -- an astounding year.
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-TIME’s Mark Halperin, on "Morning Joe": "The president said he’d do certain things when he ran, and he’s getting a lot of them done. ... That is a LOT of accomplishments in half a term. And you can bet the president’s going to talk about that come September, when he’s trying to rally the country behind the Democratic Party, saying: We’re getting stuff done.
--THE FACTS OF LIFE: The bill is tougher than Wall Street expected. A financial industry official calls the final product "quite bad, but it could have been worse."
--Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s restrictions on derivatives trading LARGELY REMAIN. She made a tiny concession to the New Dems and New Yorkers, but did not cave and retains the bulk of her language.
The President:
Go to White House.gov
The video was slowing the site down too much