YAY - WE BLOCKED SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE John Boehner today! ============ Cindy, It’s only the second day of the Mitch McConnell-John Boehner Congress. And we just stopped dead in its tracks the first attempt to sneak Wall Street giveaways through the U.S. House of Representatives. Earlier today, a bill (H.R. 37) was introduced to roll back numerous reforms enacted after the Big Banks crashed the global economy and came begging for We the People to bail them out when they realized that a yacht made of money — I think it was christened the S.S. Hubris — won’t float. Among the provisions in H.R. 37 that would have put Main Street on the hook for Wall Street’s greed — again — was an additional delay in implementing something called the Volcker rule. The Volcker rule is meant to prevent Big Banks from using taxpayer-backed deposits for some of their most volatile financial schemes. It has already been five years since the rule became law. And now they wanted to delay even longer, until 2019! So Public Citizen sent out an urgent action alert, and thousands of everyday citizens across the country placed immediate calls to their representatives’ offices in Washington, D.C. And this afternoon, the bill came up a few votes short of passing. We know that phones were ringing off the hook on Capitol Hill before the vote. And we know that some Democrats who were expected to vote for this Big Bank handout decided in the end to do the right thing and oppose the bill. Since the election last fall, I’ve been telling you that we’re in for a practically endless barrage of this kind of legislative chicanery to benefit the billionaire and Big Business forces that exploited the U.S. Supreme Court’s absurd Citizens United and McCutcheon rulings to bankroll politicians who will do their bidding. But I’ve also noted that we can still prevent bad bills from passing — if we stay vigilant and if we are ready to mobilize rapidly and forcefully time after time after time. House leaders would not have brought the bill up for a vote if they expected to lose. They think the next two years will be a piece of cake. We all just made them choke. Stay tuned. And be ready to jump to action again. Onward, Robert Weissman President, Public Citizen P.S. Tracking every bit of regressive legislation lurking within the halls of Congress, providing expert research and advocacy to those representatives and senators who haven’t sold out, and activating our nationwide network of engaged citizens is not cheap. Contribute today so we have the resources it takes to keep defending progress even in the face of this brazenly reactionary Congress.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:00:06 +0000