A consumer advocacy organization is calling on Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) to re-affirm his commitment to create an independent consumer financial regulator after the nation’s largest bank announced it would not oppose the agency. The CEO of Bank of America told President Obama his company does not oppose creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, according to the advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog. Also last week, former Citigroup Chairman John Reed endorsed a consumer regulator in testimony...
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Robert Gibbs Mocks Palin
Via The Caucus earlier today… Robert Gibbs classic performance mocking Salin Palin: After President Obama left the White House briefing room today, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, held up a surprise of his own, literally: a scribbled list of items on his hand, in an obvious mocking of Sarah Palin’s weekend crib sheet at the Tea Party Convention. While Ms. Palin’s list included items like taxes, Mr. Gibbs’s was more domestic: “I wrote eggs, milk, bread,” he told reporters in...
Administration’s Ineffective Anti-Foreclosure Program Attracts Ohio Senator’s Attention
The feckless and laggard performance of the Obama administration’s signature program to keep Americans in their homes has a Democratic senator looking for answers — and improvement in the face of a continuing U.S. foreclosure crisis. As of Dec. 31, just 66,465 homeowners had received permanent mortgage modifications under the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). That number is well below where it should be if the program were working properly. The program encourages banks to modify mortgages...
Rep. John Murtha,True Populist: 1932-2010
A conservative Democrat from an increasingly Republican corner of Pennsylvania who nevertheless would become a hero on the Left for his criticism of George W. Bush’s Iraq war, Rep. John Murtha has died. He was 77. At his death serving in his 19th term, Murtha became an influential lawmaker on defense issues and a close confidant and ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Murtha died as a result of complications from a January gallbladder surgery. This past...
This Just In: Government Spent More Than $1B To Support The News Industry Last Year
Journalists and government normally are seen as antagonists, but in reality the news business very much has relied financially on public support. Government at all levels — federal, state and local — spent more than $1 billion last to support commercial news publishers, according to a recent report the University of Southern California’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. Public support for journalism is fading fast, however, and that drop-off has strong implications for a business already weakened by...
Think Tank: Senate Dems Would Be In Bounds To Pass Health Reform Using Reconciliation
Republicans have long howled that use of a Senate procedure known as reconciliation to approve healthcare reform would be out-of-bounds and amounts to a political act of war. An independent think tank, however, finds that use of reconciliation “would be fully consistent with past practice.” Reconciliation becomes important because bills considered under the procedure cannot be blocked by filibuster from coming to a final vote. That means reconciliation bills need just a majority of 51 votes to pass —...
DNC Chief: GOP Wall St. Shake Down ‘A New Low’
A reported Republican initiative to seek campaign contributions among bankers and financial industry moneymen in exchange for a promise to block financial reforms puts the GOP squarely on the side of Wall Street over Main Street, according to the chairman of the Democratic Party. Republicans are making their case among financial industry executives that they represent the best chance to derail the pro-consumer reforms that President Obama and other Democrats are moving, according to news reports. Those reforms include...
Former NBC Employee Blasts Comcast Merger–He Happens To Be Named Al Franken
Two decades ago, he played a funny character named Stuart Smalley on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Today, he’s a U.S. senator and Al Franken sees nothing to laugh about his former employer’s plan to merge with Comcast. The Senate Judiciary Committee this week began looking into the announced plan of cable titan Comcast’s plan to merge with the entertainment assets of NBC-Universal. Currently, General Electric owns a majority stake of NBC-Universal. Comcast is nation’s largest cable provider, while NBC-Universal operates...
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