GOP Blocks Three Key Anti-Wall Street Amendments

Senate Republicans blocked Democrats from voting on three amendments Tuesday that are strongly opposed by Wall Street.

Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top-ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, rose to object to a vote on one of the most talked-about amendments, cosponsored by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). Levin-Merkley would ban commercial banks from trading for their own benefit with taxpayer-backed money.

Shelby also objected to an amendment from Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) that would rein in predatory practices of payday lenders and one from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) that would have banned naked credit default swaps, which were at the heart of the financial crisis. Dorgan's amendment was expected to fail, but Levin-Merkley had been surging in recent days. [UPDATE: The floor chaos continued late into the night.]

When it looked as if Levin-Merkley had at least 50 votes, the threshold was moved up to 60. Now that it appears within striking distance of 60 votes, the new tactic is to deny it a vote altogether.

Negotiations around Levin-Merkley have been going on throughout the day, with Levin and Merkley working out details of the bill with holdouts. But without an opportunity for a vote on the floor, those successful negotiations add up to little.

"Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is yet again doing the bidding of Wall Street and is blocking the Merkley-Levin amendment that will ban high-risk trading inside the lending and depository institutions from coming up for a vote today," said a statement from Merkley's office after the blockade. "They won't even allow a vote with a 60 vote threshold. On a day two Democrats are missing from the chamber. Wall Street lobbyists, and consequently Senator McConnell and the Republicans, want to kill the Merkley-Levin amendment by attrition because they're afraid of losing a vote. If this isn't a sign of the Republicans having the backs of the big banks on Wall Street over the American people, I don't know what is."

UPDATE: Here's Sen. Bernie Sanders and MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan going over the current state of play of the bank reform bill and various key amendments:

Comments

[CMH Resident]

06:56 PM on 05/19/2010

We need to invite the Thai resistance over here, and sick them on the banks. They know how to throw.!

[Fotis Borovilos]

01:16 PM on 05/19/2010

Wall Street made their bed and Republicans lay in it. And America gets screwed.

[FarOutFish]

02:52 AM on 05/20/2010

Funny, Wall Street, recently has given far more money to The Democratic Party and it's candidates, than it gave to The Republican Party. If Wall Street is in bed with the GOP, why are so many Goldman-Sach executives serving in the Obama administration?

[useyourbrainmore]

12:57 PM on 05/19/2010

Politicians don't make decisions in the United States. Businesses do. Because they pay for everything, including the elections that put politicians in office. By proxy, they call the shots. It's not hard to make that connection. You have two parties, being funded by various businesses and interests groups who sometimes want the same things, and sometimes don't. When they do, things get done in the system. When they don't, you see what's going on here. But to assume its the politicians themselves that are taking these positions is naive, I think. People need to revolt against government, in general, regardless of party favor because, ultimately, it makes no difference who is in power. There's a whole other stage behind the drama, and that's where the real influence is.

[Omnicorp]

01:15 PM on 05/19/2010

The best government money can buy!

[fdrrules]

12:21 PM on 05/19/2010

I agree with the people who say we need to stop the conservative supreme court political ruling that corporations are people.They are not and never have been until recently.Voting out politicians won't help,The republican party has always been the corporate party and the Democrats are no better.Both parties serve who buys them, the corporations.Until we set a limit on how much corporations can bribe a politician there is no' we the people 'in what passes for a democracy these days.With the end of FDR controls on business,yes those Damn liberals,the country was sold down the river by republicans under Reagan,the Bushes and conservative Democrats like Clinton and Obama and Carter.Get the big money out of government and we may get back democracy like in the days of FDR when the people ruled.

[Omnicorp]

01:14 PM on 05/19/2010

I agree with you, except corporations have been considered legal persons since the late 1800's (see Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad).

Yes the latest court ruling adds to that, but they have had the same rights as living people for a long time.

We need to change corporate law so that they do not have so much power.

[RedRat]

05:24 PM on 05/19/2010

True, but not by a formal proclamation from a judge. My understanding of the history of this is that it was some written margin comments by an aide to a judge. Somehow or other it has come to be through time. I would say that it is high time that this concept is reversed by Congress, which it can do. But fat chance of that happening.

[Carl Caroli]

11:45 AM on 05/19/2010

Names and re-election dates?

[Omnicorp]

11:40 AM on 05/19/2010

Our legislative system has been a spectator sport for far to long. Yes people have been systematically marginalized, but that doesn't mean people cannot regain political power.

We have lobbyist that fight for people too. We just need citizens to come out and participate.

Find an issue that you are concerned about and you can most likely find a group of concerned citizens that are working for change.

http://www.worldadvocacy.com/

In large numbers we can change our country for the better.

[FarOutFish]

11:40 AM on 05/19/2010

"cosponsored by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). Levin-Merkley would ban commercial banks from trading for their own benefit with taxpayer-backed money"

Would someone explain where in the Constitution is a clause allowing the use of taxpayer funds to bail out and then control banks and other industries,

We elected the Democratic Party, not Britain's Liberals. The British Liberal Party took control after World War Two. They Nationalized everything in sight, while selling their Soul to Labor Unions. The result? Decades of stagnation until the Torres took back power, and PM Margret Thatcher lead her country into prosperity. She had the Huevos to go to war and win against Argentina when that dictatorship invaded the Falkland. Islands.

[moose and squirrel]

05:07 PM on 05/19/2010

can you show me where in the constitution does it say you are free to be s.t.u.p.id?

[FarOutFish]

09:50 PM on 05/19/2010

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously" Hubert H. Humphrey

The 1st Amendment allows everybody the right to be stupid. Your juvenile comments prove that right is still enforce.

[american guy]

11:39 AM on 05/19/2010

Shelby should be removed from this committie he is the problem for the last 12 years, he the one who gutted all the reguraltions from the banks and wall street, he is a total disgrace I hope the renecks in alabama wake up he been scewing them and all of america.

[CMH Resident]

06:57 PM on 05/19/2010

They need to sink his career in mobile bay in the middle of the oil slick.

[ladcrp]

11:31 AM on 05/19/2010

Sender Shebby,
I thought you were in Washington to do the People's work.
Praise God

[Harvo]

11:19 AM on 05/19/2010

And in their next breath they'll tell you that they know what is best for 'the American people'.
This should be proof for anyone paying attention that this government is totally broken.
The ONLY way it's going to change is for the people to rise up and take back their country.
Until then you all will be controlled and subsequently destroyed by the money that poisons your system.

[ladcrp]

11:33 AM on 05/19/2010

When did we HAVE the country. What is this take back crap? (I'd have to go with Roosevelt)

[ladcrp]

11:35 AM on 05/19/2010

The Country was certainly taken farther AWAY by the "Supreme" Court in 2000. The single worst thing that ever happened to this country. George Bush = War Criminal; Laura Bush = Prozac addled boyfriend demiser.

[jeremyfive]

11:14 AM on 05/19/2010

The Republican Party knows how to pocket some serious money at the expense of the American people, don't they???

[LHoney]

11:04 AM on 05/19/2010

So depressing.. I guess Washington won't change until it looks like Bankok.

[jetskier]

11:28 AM on 05/19/2010

washinton is a machine that cannot change...at the helm are the power-bees we all mistrust..the worker bee will always work for them...we cannot change them..but we can change ourselves..

[LHoney]

11:44 AM on 05/19/2010

Washington changes. FDR changed Washington. It can be done, but it takes guts and those are in short supply these days. Washington is changing now, but only for the worse, and they think the people will continue to sit quietly by while their children fail, they lose their retirement, lose their jobs, lose their homes.. When people have nothing left to lose... things will get really ugly. I'm not promoting this, I just believe this is where we are headed.

[jetskier]

10:47 AM on 05/19/2010

The unspoken ghost and largest bankster yankster was Ken Lewis ..head glutton and CEO for 'Yank Off America' His mission statement was to become the largest 'yank' of all of em''..so please when trashing Blankfein, Dimon and the likes of them ilks..please don't forget to include the "to biggest to flail" . ..that whitest pasty of white collar criminals should be included in the likes of Our Favorite Yankers too... in fact..upon close examination..he lokk-ee like-ee the Martin Short character in the old SNL skit ..you know..that slimy long ashed cigarette smokin' lawyer who always said "i know that...what makes you think i didn't know that" if Ken Lewis was any more nervous when being interrogated..er i mean questioned...the viewers head in T.V. land would explode through osmosis

[basenji]

10:37 AM on 05/19/2010

Of course it's watered down by Dodd the last minute. He is pandering to his future employers. Except for Durbin, Levin, Feinberg, Sanders and a handful of others, they have all sold out and know voters will Specter them when their time arrives.

[Indon]

10:47 AM on 05/19/2010

Except we can't just afford to replace these people - we can't trust the replacements, either, as they'll be backed by the same corporations.

We're going to need to purge business influence from the US legislative process - and that pretty much means public campaign financing.

[OleProfessor]

10:34 AM on 05/19/2010

The U.S. Senate is Corrupt beyond repair!

We should dissolve it we only need U.S. Congress the People's Branch everyday these corrupt millionaires prove that to us all!

[Indon]

10:48 AM on 05/19/2010

Considering that we would need a constitutional amendment to scrap the Senate, might I propose an alternative:

That we instead amend the constitution to remove corporate personhood, the legal concept which protects the ability of corporations to freely influence our elected officials with the legal bribery that is lobbying.

[codycap]

10:53 AM on 05/19/2010

Corruption is not a problem in our government--it has become our system. Changing the Senate will do nada, we must change the system.

Is bribery not corruption just because it is legal?

Blaming this and that politician does no good. The blame lies ultimately on American citizens.

Until EVERYONE starts talking and blogging and marching for Campaign Reform we are just spinning our wheels discussing anything that might challenge the special interests. Lets fight together as Americans.

http://www.fairelectionsnow.org/volunteer/petition (FENA)
http://change-congress.org/
http://movetoamend.org/