Big-time bankers are turning members of Congress into
obedient stenographers.
The word “help” is so
uplifting. It conveys our best humanitarian values. How odd, then, to see it
used in this New York Times headline: “Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills.”
I’ll bet they did!
We all know how
altruistic, beneficent, and kindhearted Wall Street lobbyists are — when it
comes to helping themselves.
The Times’ article explains that
a small army of high-dollar influence peddlers are not merely asking our
lawmakers to free big banks from pesky rules that limit their reckless greed.
Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write the laws themselves.
For example, one key
bill that zipped out of the House Finance Committee in May is essentially a
do-it-yourself lawmaking product of Citigroup.
In a concise 85 lines, it
exempts big chunks of dangerously high-risk Wall Street speculation from any
bothersome regulation. More than 70 of those 85 lines were penned by Citigroup
lobbyists with “help” from other banks. The committee even copied two key
paragraphs word for word from the language that Citigroup handed to the
members.
This group of DIY
bill-writers insists that nothing is amiss here — we’re not trying to gut the
Wall Street reform package passed just three years ago, they say. We’re simply
trying to reach “a compromise.”
I was born at night,
but it wasn’t last night. The 2010 reforms were a compromise, and the American
people would like to see them made much tougher, not weaker.
Wall Street, of
course, feels entitled to snake inside, assume the role of lawmaker, and
pervert the public will. As one lobbyist puts it, “We will provide input if we
see a bill we have interest in.” After all, it’s all about helping.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He's also editor of the
populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org