Apparently a day is all it took. We reported Tuesday that, although a variety of financial reform advocates believe the new Senate reform package lacks needed teeth, they stopped short of declaring outright opposition to the bill. There appeared to be a sense that provisions — particularly those placing a new consumer-protection agency within the Federal Reserve – could be changed. On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stepped up and announced that he would do just that. A...

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Rep. David Obey has made no secret of his skepticism of President Obama’s direction in Afghanistan. But when it comes to Obama’s economic policies, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday leaped to the president’s defense. In fact, the veteran Wisconsin Democrat opened a hearing on the federal budget and broader economic outlook for fiscal year 2011 offering not only full-throated support for Obama’s stimulus and job-creation programs, but dispensing a wider broadside against earlier conservative economic...

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