Wall Street is spending $500 million to convince Congress to kill the reform bill that will finally curb their reckless behavior.1
That's one investment that's paying off. Every single Republican is now on record opposing Wall Street reform.
That means every single Republican is on record protecting the big banks instead of the countless Americans who lost jobs, money, houses, or their pensions because of Wall Street's behavior.
We have to call them out right away. If we don't, their bogus arguments against reform will stick—just like they did on health care.
It seems hard to believe that anyone would want to oppose Wall Street reform in the middle of a major financial crisis like this. But the Republicans are willing to do it to protect their allies at the big banks.
They know this is a high risk strategy. Their pollsters say the only way they'll get away with it is if they lie about Obama's plan and say it will cause more bailouts—even though they know that it will do the exact opposite.2
But if we don't expose them—their lies will stick. Remember health care?
The truth is that Wall Street reform will:3
End the bailouts by forcing big financial companies to put aside money now, so if there's another AIG-like disaster, taxpayers won't be on the hook. We'll use the big banks' own money to shut them down.
Protect consumers by creating an independent watchdog that would finally stop credit card companies, mortgage brokers, and big banks from hiding information in the fine print.
Shut down the "shadow markets" by cracking down on the backroom trading that put our economy at risk. Unlike the stock market, these "shadow markets"—where trillions of dollars of "derivatives" are traded each year—are secret, highly risky, and virtually unregulated.4,5
So we're fighting back. But we need help. Can you chip in $5?
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/wallstreet.html?bg_id=hpc5&id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=4
Thanks for all you do.
–Nita, Laura, Daniel, Ilyse and the rest of the team
Sources
1. "No more taxpayer bailouts," Americans for Financial Reform, April 15, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87878&id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=5
2. "A GOP Financial Reform Bellwether," Time, April 13, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87876&id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=6
3. Senate Banking Committee, April 16, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87877&id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=7
4. "Sen. Lincoln unveils broad derivatives regulatory bill," MarketWatch, April 16, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87879&id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=8
5. "Derivatives market," Wikipedia, April 13, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87838&id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=9
Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=19921-17685405-2GxEwax&t=10
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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