After JP Morgan Fiasco Obama Targets Wall Street’s GOP Enablers

Because President Obama is pushing for more financial regulation and reform, Wall Street is going all in on Mitt Romney and the Republican Party. Now Obama is fighting back.

Here’s the video:

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The president described the causes of the 2008 financial crisis and said,

Since then, we’ve recovered taxpayer dollars that were used to stabilize troubled banks. And we’ve put in place Wall Street reform with smarter, tougher, commonsense rules that serve one primary purpose: to prevent a crisis like that from ever happening again. And yet, for the past two years, too many Republicans in Congress and an army of financial industry lobbyists have actually been waging an all-out battle to delay, defund, and dismantle Wall Street reform.

Recently, we’ve seen why we can’t let that happen. We found out that a big mistake at one of our biggest banks resulted in a two billion dollar loss. While that bank can handle a loss of that size, other banks may not have been able to. And without Wall Street reform, we could have found ourselves with the taxpayers once again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes.

That’s why it’s so important that Members of Congress stand on the side of reform, not against it; because we can’t afford to go back to an era of weak regulation and little oversight; where excessive risk-taking on Wall Street and a lack of basic oversight in Washington nearly destroyed our economy. We can’t afford to go back to that brand of ‘you’re-on-your-own’ economics. Not after the American people have worked so hard to come back from this crisis.

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So unless you run a financial institution whose business model is built on cheating consumers, or making risky bets that could damage the whole economy, you have nothing to fear from Wall Street reform. Yes, it discourages big banks and financial institutions from making risky bets with taxpayer-insured money. And it encourages them to do things that actually help the economy – like extending loans toentrepreneurs with good ideas, to middle-class families who want to buy a home, to students who want to pursue higher education.

That’s what Wall Street reform is all about – making this economy stronger for you. And we’re going to keep working – to recover every job lost to the recession; to build an economy where hard work and responsibility are once again rewarded; to restore an America where everyone has a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.

I believe the free market is one of the greatest forces for progress in human history; that businesses are the engine of growth; that risk-takers and innovators should be celebrated. But I also believe that at its best, the free market has never been a license to take whatever you want, however you can get it. Alongside our entrepreneurial spirit and rugged individualism, America only prospers when we meet our obligations to one another; and to future generations.

If you agree with me, let your Member of Congress know. Tell them to spend less time working to undermine rules that are there to protect the economy, and spend more time actually working to strengthen the economy.

There is a myth forwarded by some on the left and even more on the right that both Obama and Romney are Wall Street funded candidates. While Wall Street did support Obama in 2008 because they wanted their bailout, and Obama looked like a sure winner over McCain, the worm has turned in 2012. As soon as Obama supported financial reform, even in its most modest form, Wall Street bolted from Obama and curled up into the loving arms of one of their own, Mitt Romney.

A study by the Center for Responsive Politics found that 92% of the securities and investment industry donations have gone to the Republican Party, and 72% of Wall Street’s contributions have gone to Mitt Romney. Wall Street can’t get over the fact that Obama and the Democrats had the nerve to ask for a little something back for the billions of taxpayer dollars in bailouts that they were given.

The financial reform bill that was passed and signed into law (Dodd-Frank) does not even come close to performing the type of clean up and regulation that needs to be done. The bill was watered down and neutered by Wall Street lobbyists through the members of Congress that they bankroll, and even after any real chance at reform had been neutered, congressional Republicans are still blocking implementation of the new law.

Republicans and Wall Street are in agreement that there should be zero reforms and regulations. They want to and more relaxed environment than the one that caused the Great Recession. When Wall Street screws up and pushes the economy to the brink of collapse, they want Republicans on the scene with a blank check in hand to pat them on the head and let them know that all will be well.

This is the Republican vision for America. This is why the right howls class warfare when Obama puts the people first calls for the simplest of reforms, and this will be the future for our country if Mitt Romney is elected president.

Obama is a pragmatic centrist, and right now the nation needs a dose of pragmatism to stop the Republican Party and their special interests from pushing us over the edge.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association