Senate Democrats today ripped into a plan offered this morning by the Bush administration to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system.
Democrats condemned the proposal, detailed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, which would be the most expansive overhaul since since the stock market crash of 1929.
"I would call this the wild pitch. It's not even in the strike zone," said Sen. Chris Dodd, Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Senate banking committee. "To talk about overhauling the financial regulatory system is a wonderful idea, but frankly it doesn't relate with the issues that we're grappling with."
Dodd's comments came during a press call with reporters to discuss a pending housing foreclosure bill. Dodd said the Paulson plan is "completely off the mark" and constitutes a "failure to utilize the regulatory tools" such as the Home Owners Protection Act 1994 that could have prevented the current housing crisis. Dodd said the Bush administration did not call him for input on the plan, saying "I've been around here long enough that I didn't get my ego offended."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said the plan failed to address the current situation in a timely way.
"We feel that the White House should direct their attention to what needs to be done now, not what needs to be done in the future," said Reid, who also said he was willing to work with the administration to pass some form of legislation overhauling financial rules, though he added that he's "worked with the White House for more than seven years now. We can't have this as it's been in the past, 'Either my way, or no way.' "
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the plan "a step in the right direction," but said it needed to go further to provide immediate relief for families.
"Congressional Democrats support [House Financial Services Committee] Chairman Barney Frank's proposed reforms to help millions of Americans avoid foreclosure, and restore stability to our financial markets," Pelosi said. "We look forward to working with the administration as we move forward."
— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
This is interesting. This issue took years of complex iterative compounding issues and the Congress wants a short term fix. The dam has already ruptured. As far a Dodd's statement is concerned; who is responsible for oversight of the regulatory tools that could have prevented this? If the Bush administration is offering control measures to prevent this in the future, where is the congressional response, other than it's Bush's fault. The American people are really getting tired of a Congress that points fingers and then sits on its hands.
Posted by Larry Stone | April 1, 2008 5:06 AM