Posted on 08/15/2009 7:16:48 AM PDT by Libloather
FDIC Chief: Parts of Obama Plan Won't Fly
Sheila Bair Says Congress Won't Approve Two Major Parts of Administration's Financial Overhaul
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2009
(AP) Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair is pushing back against key elements of the Obama administration's financial overhaul plan, saying they wouldn't survive in Congress and calling her own alternatives more viable.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Bair said Congress won't approve two major parts of the package: Expanding the Federal Reserve's authority to regulate the largest financial companies and giving a proposed new consumer protection agency examination and enforcement powers over banks.
Such authority now belongs to her agency and other bank regulators.
"There's a lot of resistance from a lot of different quarters to a lot of the things the administration has submitted," Bair told the AP Thursday. "That is a reality the administration needs to deal with."
Bair said alternatives she has backed would "provide a framework that can actually get through Congress." Her ideas include empowering a new agency to protect consumers from abusive mortgage and credit card products - but having bank supervisors enforce those rules.
Her statements highlight Treasury's uphill struggle to sell the administration's proposed financial overhaul to Congress and the public. Since the plan was rolled out in June, industry groups have balked at rules they say will burden companies and raise borrowers' costs. Bank industry lobbyists are leading the charge against major parts of the plan.
Congress has objected to concentrating more power in the Fed. Critics note that the central bank failed to properly use its consumer protection authority before the crisis erupted.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
What about teaching people to read agreements before they sign on the dotted line?
The list, ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.