Sen. Elizabeth Warren: GOP did bankers’ bidding with surprise change to ‘cromnibus’ spending bill
Arturo Garcia ARTURO GARCIA
rawstory.com
10 DEC 2014 AT 23:24 ET
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) accused Republicans on Wednesday of taking direction from the banking industry in adding a last-minute provision to a $1.1 trillion government funding bill.
“This was a provision added by CitiGroup lobbyists,” Warren told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. “I mean, they literally wrote it. They took it back, re-edited it and made sure it said exactly what they wanted it to say.” The provision, which Warren said was added by surprise, would eliminate a requirement under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that banks trade financial derivatives separately from regular bank accounts, which are protected through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The Hill reported that a House vote on the revised plan, which has been called the “cromnibus” bill, is scheduled for Thursday. But Warren and other Democrats have argued that this change would create the same kind of environment that led to the financial recession of 2008.
“The biggest financial institutions in this country can make more money if this little provision gets stripped out of Dodd-Frank,” Warren said. Maddow told Warren that she was surprised that the Tea Party caucus over the revision, given their prior statements regarding the bank bailouts that were put into effect to contain the damage done by unfettered trading.
“The Republican lesson from the bailout, from the financial crisis — at least on the far-right side of the Republican Party — was supposedly that the bailouts were a bad idea,” Maddow said. “That the taxpayers getting involved in trying to save any part of the economy is a bad thing, it’s ideologically odious, and that we should never do this again.” However, Maddow said, Republicans are now in a situation where they need Democrats to help them get the revision into any spending deal.
“I think Democrats have been looking for an excuse not to pass it,” Maddow said. “And I think they just got it.”
Watch Maddow’s interview with Warren, as aired on Wednesday, below. |
