May 3rd, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker: 
In the Senate, debate on Dodd’s Wall Street Takeover bill continues this week, likely with a vote today on Sen. Boxer’s amendment she claims will remove permanent bailout authority from the bill. In offering the amendment last week, Boxer claimed the amendment was unnecessary because the bill currently does not contain permanent bailout authority for the federal government. “When I heard my colleagues on the other side say Senator Dodd’s bill would ensure taxpayer bailouts, I knew it was false,” stated Boxer, and then she proceeded to offer her amendment to remove the “non-existent” offending provision from the bill. Dodd has set a deadline of May 14th for passage of the financial reform bill in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported yesterday that “several prominent experts” claim the Dodd bill does not even address the root problems of the financial crisis, thus exposing the market to another major crisis. The article quotes MIT finance professor Andrew Lo as stating, “Until we understand what the causes were, we may be implementing ineffective and even counterproductive reforms.” Professor Lo continued with a more pointed critique of the current bill: “I understand the need for action. I understand the need for something to be done. But what I expect from political leaders is for them to demonstrate leadership in telling the public that we need to proceed about this in a much more deliberate and rational and thoughtful way.”
Bottom Line: Of course, the fact that legitimate outside experts are increasingly critical of the bill’s provisions and are calling on Congress to adopt a more careful, examined approach to financial reform will make absolutely no difference to Dodd or Majority Leader Reid. It’s been a long time since this bill was actually about ensuring that another financial collapse doesn’t happen… it’s all about clinging to any issue that might give the Democrats the slightest bit of traction leading up to the mid-term elections.
In the House, Politico is reporting that Pelosi and her lieutenants are complaining about Obama’s constant Washington bashing, noting that Democrats are part of “Washington” and have more to lose than Republicans. Pelosi, Van Hollen and Clyburn had a recent meeting WH Advisor David Axelrod to warn him Obama must change his attacks on “Congress” and “Washington” to “Republicans” or risk exacerbating the beating their party will take come November.
Meanwhile, Rep. Luis Gutierrez was arrested Saturday outside the White House fence during a “May Day” protest for immigration reform, or more specifically for relaxing current immigration laws. Gutierrez sat along the fence locking arms with other protestors until he was arrested when he refused to move. On Sunday, Gutierrez was right back on the issue in an appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, calling Arizona’s new tough immigration laws “discriminatory.” Gutierrez stated, “We come here to sweat, to work hard. Yes some of us cross that border and some of us overstayed our visa but, by and large, we love this country and to say that somehow we are all this criminal element and to target us with this discriminatory law is just wrong.”
Bottom Line: Axelrod, according to Politico, was noncommittal about altering Obama’s rhetoric. The reality is that BO prefers his current tactics because he wants to be seen as “outside” and “unaffected” by the ills of Congress and Washington. He’ll go after any Republican by name, with increasing frequency of late, but knows that Congress’ approval ratings are so low he dare not taint himself by defending Pelosi, Reid, and their Dem colleagues.
It is apparently lost of Rep. Gutierrez that crossing the U.S. border illegally is still, well, illegal and considered a “criminal” offense.
At the other end of the Avenue, yesterday Obama gave the commencement speech for the University of Michigan, where he used the platform to lament the caustic tone in politics right now and particularly on cable. Obama complained that pundits and politicians are “throwing around phrases like ‘socialists’ and ‘Soviet-style-takeover’ and ‘fascist” and observed this kind of “over the top rhetoric closes the door to the possibility of compromise.” BO then went on to state that our American democracy has thrived because we “recognized the need for a government that, while limited, can still help us adapt to a changing world.”
Bottom Line: To be just a month removed from using the most brutal un-democratic tactics seen in decades to pass unconstitutional “healthcare” legislation that the majority of the country actually opposed (and still does), and then complain that people call him socialist and fascist is beyond the pale. It is infuriating and sad to see that this man does not realize how liberal and un-Constitutional his policies are, all the while pay lip service to “limited government.” So, when attacked, he castigates and demonizes the other side… then calls for civility.
Obama is on his way to Louisiana this morning to survey the latest damage caused by the oil slick in the Gulf Coast, perhaps to call for more federal regulations against such corporate villains such as BP. He will undoubtedly do it in a very civil manner.
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