Free Republic

Six months have passed since Scott Brown shook the world with his upset victory over Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election to fill the people's seat once held by Ted Kennedy. Brown was elected to the United States Senate in no small part due to the energy and enthusiasm of Tea Party activists. In the intervening 180 days, the euphoria of sending a Republican Senator from Massachusetts to Capitol Hill has waned amongst Tea Party enthusiasts. Some thought the election of Brown would spell the death knell of Obamacare. As the 41st Republican senator, he put Republicans in a...

What if you pulled an all-nighter in college, only to have the professor tell you your work wasn’t good enough and demand a re-write of your paper? That could be the fate of the House and Senate on a massive financial regulation bill to restructure the banking and lending industries. Conferees from the House and Senate met for the past three weeks trying to reconcile differences in a financial regulatory bill approved by both chambers. A conference committee is where lawmakers meet to forge a final measure before it goes to the president. The conferees met all day last Thursday,...

The Dodd-Frank Act to "reform" Wall Street isn't yet a sure thing, votes-wise. New York's congressional delegation can still do the right thing for the city and state -- and should vote against this bad bill. The measure would bring New York's strongest banks and investment firms down to the level of the weakest, and turn Gotham's premier industry into a collectivist monolith with no incentive to control risk. And, in a move that's guaranteed to push jobs out of New York, the feds want big investment firms, insurers and hedge funds to front $20 billion in two years for...

Contrary to what the Obama administration would have you believe, the biggest recipients of taxpayer funds during the financial crisis have not been Wall Street banks -- but the toxic twins, mortgage behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And the House and Senate are now finalizing legislation to reform the financial sector -- yet the bill will leave the biggest bailout recipients untouched. In fact, Fannie and Freddie are guaranteed to continue siphoning money from American taxpayers. That's right: The Democratic majority in Congress has made no attempt to reform these two entities, which have already cost us $145 billion....

Democratic leaders gave notice late Monday that they intend to wind down the weeks-long debate over new financial regulations, even as lawmakers continued to churn through proposed changes to the massive bill.

The Tea Party, with overwhelming agreement from the America people, opposes any further TARP bank bailouts. But just as with the health care bill, Washington's ruling Democrats are laughing off the Tea Party, and ignoring the American people. President Obama's so-called Financial Regulatory Reform bill institutionalizes permanent TARP bailout authority across the entire financial sector, indeed, for any company that can be deemed involved in financial activity of any sort. Washington is operating today as if we have been conquered by a foreign power that has suspended our democracy and doesn't care what the American people think. Bailout Socialism The...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans yesterday stalled efforts to overhaul Wall Street, but Democrats, saying they were convinced Americans want a regulatory crackdown, insisted they would ultimately prevail. With bipartisan talks continuing on the measure, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said GOP lawmakers were "weaker" after they prevented the start of debate on President Obama's reform bill. "They are stopping this," Boxer said. "People understand that taxpayers are on the hook for billions of dollars, and they understand we have to fix this. The polls are overwhelming." Obama said he was "deeply disappointed" that Senate Republicans blocked debate on the bill, sponsored...

If the financial regulation bill that passed the House last year becomes law, President Obama and his Treasury Secretary will acquire the right to take over any financial institution they wish to, provided that, in their sole opinion, it is both “too big to fail” and on the brink of insolvency. The House bill provides for no judicial review and does not require any objective evidence of imminent failure to trigger the takeover provisions. Once the government takes over such a company, it will acquire the right to replace the entire board of directors, fire the management of the company,...