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   Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
 The federal government is supposed to issue new rules about debt levels for students in for-profit colleges. In the meantime, the states are working on their own regulations.
 Washingtons budget hawks want to decimate the federal workforce to shrink the deficit. It will have the opposite effect.
 There arent nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of Americas police. So we got these guys instead.
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April 15, 2010
WALL STREET REFORM EFFORT HEATING UP.... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sounded impatient when he told reporters today that he's moving forward with legislation on financial regulatory reform. "We have talked about this enough. We have negotiated this enough," Reid said, adding that the Senate may vote as early as next week. For his part, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) had another stemwinder on the Senate floor today. If you thought Dodd was visibly frustrated yesterday, check out his remarks today. The senator seems to have grown pretty tired of Republicans' nonsense on the legislation, and I can't say I blame him. Speaking of Republicans, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who seems desperate to kill the Democratic bill because, well, it's a Democratic bill, is trying to secure 41 solid commitments from his GOP caucus to prevent a debate of the legislation. His office is reportedly circulating a letter in the hopes of filibustering the motion to proceed on the bill (in effect, McConnell wants to not only prevent a vote on Wall Street reform, he also wants to prevent a debate). At this point, however, McConnell is having some trouble locking down complete unanimity from his caucus. It's unclear exactly how many signatures he has on the circulating letter, but he has reportedly "fallen short of the 41 signatures he needs," at least for now. While McConnell keeps trying to shut down the process, at least one Republican senator seems to expect some GOP members to sign onto the Democratic bill. Tennessee's Bob Corker (R) told ABC News this morning that he'd be "stunned if we do not reach a bipartisan agreement." He added, "[A]t the end of the day, I think we're going to have a solid bipartisan effort." Helping drive the process is the fact that Democrats are being unusually aggressive of late, practically daring Republicans to get in the way. If the GOP backs down, Dems get the bill they want. If the GOP prefers obstructionism, Dems believe they'll have a political weapon they'll use to undermine Republicans on a key issue. Hill aides told Brian Beutler "that they'd relish the prospect of putting Republicans on the side of big banks in opposition to reg reform." This is, in other words, an example of lessons learned. During the health care debate, Dems kept pleading with Republicans to play a constructive role. Democrats delayed the process for months, making concessions and accepting compromises, all in the hopes that a Republican or two might be willing to negotiate in good faith. The efforts were wasteful and counter-productive, and Dems aren't willing to endure the same mess. Sources close to the process suggest the White House is telling Senate Dems they're doing the right thing. Rather than signaling a willingness to tolerate more GOP nonsense, the West Wing is telling Reid & Co. to keep moving forward, whether Republicans like it or not. —Steve Benen 4:05 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (22)
Comments
More evidence that momentum is definitely on the side of reform. Posted by: kschmdt on April 15, 2010 at 4:11 PM | PERMALINKOh how long I've wished the democratic party would grow a spine and do... well, exactly this. Do I dare hope this is the first hint of a new crop spiney-shoots? Posted by: fastandsloppy on April 15, 2010 at 4:11 PM | PERMALINK"the West Wing is telling Reid & Co. to keep moving forward, whether Republicans like it or not." What exactly would the republicans 'like', besides Obama's resignation, I don't see them liking anything liberals put on the table. We can all agree HCR was a hard lesson learned and at least we can take some gratification that at least those lessons haven't been forgotten. Posted by: ScottW714 on April 15, 2010 at 4:15 PM | PERMALINKWhoo-wee! Preach it, sir. Again, again, and again -- however long it takes. ~~Applause~~ Posted by: FC on April 15, 2010 at 4:19 PM | PERMALINKI already HAVE my "Gucci hoodie". Where's the Mod????????? Filing taxes, like everyone else, and doing my job in bits and pieces! I think I got them all, let me know if I didn't. --Mod Posted by: DAY on April 15, 2010 at 4:23 PM | PERMALINKAs a peacenik of many years, it seems odds to say this but YES, Democrats need to be AGRESSIVE and smart and relentless about pursuing good laws and protections for the economy and the people whom they were elected, in the voter world, to represent. Posted by: sf on April 15, 2010 at 4:27 PM | PERMALINKFiling taxes, like everyone else, and doing my job in bits and pieces! I think I got them all; let me know if I didn't. --Mod There's one right above your head. Posted by: shortstop on April 15, 2010 at 4:36 PM | PERMALINKMr. Mod: You missed the one immediately above DAY's post. Posted by: Shade Tail on April 15, 2010 at 4:36 PM | PERMALINKAnd once again we need to ask what have the republicans contributed to the bill presented by Dodd and the banking committee? So far it's been the democrat bill fails but no "and here's our suggestion". Boondoggle indeed. Posted by: flyonthewall on April 15, 2010 at 4:37 PM | PERMALINKWith all the talk around here about the general stupidity of Republicans, I have to say that the Dimocrats did not give a good accounting of themselves during the HCR debate. The Republican's bad faith was apparennt very early in the process. I'm happy reform passed but, for my money we could have had a much better bill much earlier if the Democrats, specificaly Baucus and Reid, had not been so easily played by the Rethugs. Posted by: Winkandanod on April 15, 2010 at 4:39 PM | PERMALINKwe could have had a much better bill much earlier if the Democrats...had not been so easily played" - Winkandanod I think they did it just right. They gave the Reps every chance to participate in HCR and they stallled/delayed etc. At the end of the process they accused the Dems of ramming the bill through. Of course everyone knows that the Dems did no such thing. But as long as they're going to be accused of "ramming", I say - let 'er rip! I think the Dems are very mad at how the repubs keeping lying and teeing off on them. It must have really sucked day after day with repubs lying about HCR to the point of death threats against the Dems. For trying to give health care to people! I think the Dems learned exactly what the repubs are during the HCR proceeding and are really tired of being smeared with lies and are finally not going to take it anymore. Also, I think the repubs learned nothing and they think they can run their usual plays of lying and having the media eat it up. I wonder if they have noticed the change and are scared? Posted by: cal on April 15, 2010 at 4:58 PM | PERMALINKThe GOP delay of HCR could now work against them. HCR is done and gone into law mode, before the mid-terms. Now, FinReg is in everyone's mind when the election season begins. Much easier to sell/advertise "Big Banks Bad" and "GOP hearts Wall Street" than all the pieces of HCR. Posted by: TonyB on April 15, 2010 at 5:01 PM | PERMALINKAfter the way he behaved on the auto bailout it is stunning and refreshing to see Bob Corker acting like an adult. Posted by: 4jkb4ia on April 15, 2010 at 5:01 PM | PERMALINKReid and Company have 60+ votes. They have them in hand. The probably have closer to 65. McConnell made the wrong promises to the wrong people. He shouldn't have pulled a Luntz. Obama is one smart fellow. Posted by: Ron Byers on April 15, 2010 at 5:02 PM | PERMALINKMaybe Reid's decided he wants to end his Senate career on an up note by accomplishing something. Rather than going out like the sellout more concerned with Senate rules and prestige than helping actual real people he's been acting like since he became Majority 'Leader'. Good for him. It's far to late in coming but if Reid manages to get this done I'll be impressed with him for the first time in many years. Posted by: thorin-1 on April 15, 2010 at 5:14 PM | PERMALINKOK, if it turns out that Obama's willingness to compromise HCR to ensure passage of some bill--any bill--was the coup that breaks Republican obstructionism, then will you DFHs admit he is the grand master of 11-dimensional chess? It's sounding to me like a handful of Republican senators are tired of sitting on the sidelines while the Democrats make policy. Posted by: Quaker in a Basement on April 15, 2010 at 6:31 PM | PERMALINKI DO hope that someone will make perfectly clear all of the differences in investing on Wall St. and gaming in Los Vegas. Does the house always win on Wall St. too? Posted by: anonymous on April 15, 2010 at 7:18 PM | PERMALINK4jkb4ia: An extremely cynical person might think that Corker on the auto bailout actually wasn't motivated by policy or what's good for America, and was instead thinking about the interests of Nissan and VW, who have plants in TN... Posted by: mcc on April 15, 2010 at 7:29 PM | PERMALINKYo, Dodd! Don't get mad . . . rewrite the fucking bill and take out all those concessions!! Posted by: bdop4 on April 15, 2010 at 7:46 PM | PERMALINKIt's good for the reform effort to heat up, but according to AlterNet, Banks and Wall Street still have too much influence and are watering down the measures. See for example: 
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