The march by Senate Republicans to try to undo everything good that happened at the hands of a Democratic Congress and White House is now trying to take us back to the bad old days that almost wrecked the global economy 10 years ago, and undo many of the regulatory reforms achieved under Dodd-Frank. It's being presented as regulatory relief to small and regional banks, but Wall Street reform leaders, including former Fed officials, say that it goes too far and will, in fact, "substantially reduc[e] the regulation of 25 of the 38 largest banks to which [enhanced prudential] standards now apply," as well as harm consumers.
The public apparently agrees with them, according to the latest polling from PPP. Their results show there are two simple reasons for the public's strong support for the regulations and distrust of the banks: "they think effective regulation of banks is needed to avoid another financial crisis, and they think big banks already have too much influence in Washington."
- Fully 64% of voters think big banks and finance companies continue to require tough oversight to avoid another financial crisis. Only 25% think Congress went too far in regulating the financial services industry after the 2008 crisis.
- Overall, 59% of voters support Dodd-Frank, the law Congress passed to regulate Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis. Only 21 percent oppose it. And 20 percent are not sure.
- Only 17% of voters support loosening regulations on banks with between $50 billion and $250 billion dollars in assets, to 67% who are opposed. Democrats (11/80), independents (15/63), and Republicans (25/54) are all strongly against that provision.
- Only 22% support provisions to loosen the rules on mortgage lenders, to 65% who are opposed. There is a strong bipartisan consensus against that as well with Democrats (17/76), independents (18/64), and Republicans (33/53) in agreement it’s a bad idea.
Voters, many of whom never fully recovered from the 2008 meltdown, have strong feelings about the banksters. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents say that lax oversight led to the crisis and nearly 8 in 10 (78 percent) say that "big banks and financial institutions have too much influence in Washington already."
That influence is not making them happy, and could be a salient 2018 campaign issue.
"Supporting this legislation is a loser for politicians regardless of whether they’re most concerned about where Democratic (14% more likely, 72% less likely), independent (6% more likely, 67% less likely), or Republican (24% more likely, 55% less likely) voters stand."
That's something this cycle's "moderate" Democrats need to keep in mind. Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Mark Warner of Virginia have all worked with Idaho Republican Mike Crapo to work out a deal to bring the bill to the floor despite ranking Banking Committee member Sherrod Brown's objections. Siding with Main Street over Wall Street has never been bad politics for a Democrat—and it won't be this year, either.