Picture a government agency that nobody on Wall Street wants, and was created under pressure from pundits, economists, the Liberal Caucus and the majority of the American public. An agency that protects us all from the most egregious and rapacious practices of mortgage and credit card companies (read: big banks). Or, would protect us if it could get up and running with a strong director.
This would be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to get it up and running strong, it needs to be headed by Elizabeth Warren - its creator. Republicans will not confirm her nomination. In fact, they say, as a block, that they will not approve ANY nomination unless the Bureau is significantly weakened; in fact stripped of all regulatory powers.
The way around this, the constitutionally legitimate way, is to have President Obama appoint Warren during the Senate's pre-summer week off. A recess appointment - something presidents do when they are getting their nominees snubbed by the Senate. Gee, it's a good thing the President has a majority in the Senate...
...Oh wait...that majority is headed by Harry Reid - that spineless fucker who never fights for anything except his own seat. Here's what CBS News' website says:
"Republican senators, led by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Jim Demint (R-SC), wrote to House Speaker John Boehner asking him not to pass the Senate's adjournment resolution in the House in order to block any recess appointments by the administration.
In response, Reid agreed to schedule three "pro forma" sessions while the senators are gone, on May 27, May 31 and June 3. (The Senate must be out for four consecutive days for a recess appointment to be made.) Senators who live nearby will come in to open and close the session, but no business will be done."
So, Reid just killed the President's ability to nominate Warren, the person he supposedly wants to put at the head of this important protection for the American consumer. Why did he do this? Why did he fuck us all in favor of the most hated institutions in America these last few years, the big banks? Because they OWN him - or they don't yet but he wants them to.
An article in Alternet tells how Princeton professor Larry Bartels studied the voting habits of US Senators from the 1990s. This study wins the prestigious "No Shit" award for finding that Republicans' votes in the Senate favor the rich, and do not help middle-income Americans. But it also finds that Democratic Senate votes don't favor us either - "at all" (emphasis from the article!).
So, Elizabeth Warren, who would fight for some regulation, who would make sure we just got fucked over by big banks, and not gang raped, beaten and then forced to make them sandwiches (fiscally, not literally...c'mon now) will NOT get a recess appointment because that would be too much for our Wall Street masters. And Harry Reid will say "it was those damned, dirty Republicans," and Obama will say "tsk, tsk...this is partisan politics, gosh-golly..." and then go on to say "Elizabeth, thanks for your service" as he appoints a Wall Street stooge to the post that Republicans block for a while and then approve. The Democrats will once again hide behind the veil of Republican obstructionism, and the corporate machine continues to grind us to make their bread.
Don't believe the hype.
Reid, Obama and the Democratic leadership are laughing at us. They don't give one and a half, much less two shits about us. It doesn't matter that House Republicans refuse to accept the Senate's adjournment (which they did). The President can recess-appoint with only four consecutive days of no business in the Senate. Reid made sure to have business days spread out so that there would be no ability to put Warren where she could do the most good.
Oh, and a good, strong head of the National Labor Relations Board? No, we won't get that either, because god forbid that a Democratic president should elect a pro-labor chairman to head the main labor advocacy group within the government. Dems have made it clear these past few years that they also don't give one and a half about unions.
They don't work for us, not any more. They may have, in the past...but not now. The leadership of the Democratic Party actively works against the interests of the bottom 98% of Americans. They don't just fail to fight, they work to screw us. They know who their masters are, and they serve them well.
Primary every one of these fuckers.
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