It’s almost enough to fill one with despair.
What’s one definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
What clichés or common phrases are running through my mind?
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it
It’s the same old song
Here we go again.
Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, who one month ago proposed an overhaul of financial regulations that was hailed by many consumer activists, has all but jettisoned that proposal following Republican objections and has initiated talks for a new approach designed to satisfy some of his fiercest GOP critics.
Dodd’s strategy has raised concerns among consumer activists who were counting on him to come up with a tougher bill than the one recently passed by the House, and now worry that the entire measure will be weakened.
But the Connecticut Democrat, in an interview in which he laid out his strategy, said it would be too risky to launch another legislative effort that might repeat the Senate’s experience with in the health care debate, in which single senators have forced major rewrites or threaten to defeat the measure.
Yes, Chris Dodd is about to water down a bill that was probably not all that good to begin with in order to get Republican votes. How many votes will he get? None. If he gets no votes will he restore the bill to its present, more palatable wording? No. So in exchange for no votes we will get a shitty bill. Just like health care.
Did I say just like health care? This will be even worse, because this is a bill, as both Paul Krugman and Nate Silver have pointed out, that is tailor made to break the back of the filibuster. Even the Democrats must have the ability to win a war of words against a party that will be, and should be easily portrayed as being, the handmaidens of the bankers, hedge fund managers and other assorted crooks and slimeballs that got us into this mess. This bill represents not just a chance for the Democrats to fix our economic system, but to portray Republican intransigence for what it is. This is the bill on which the country would applaud them for going nuclear if that’s what it takes.
Instead, we can look forward to months of stories about Chris Dodd trolling for Republican votes that he is never going to get, with RIchard Shelby and Judd Gregg, playing the roles of Chuck Grassley and Olympia Snowe.
I hope I’m wrong. I hope Dodd is just trying to set them up. Neither his words nor recent history give us much hope.
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