|
 On June 17 President Obama introduced his far-reaching plan to overhaul financial services regulations in a speech at the White House (video of speech).
For commentary regarding how unconstitutional and wrongheaded the President’s proposal is take a look at these two videos featuring Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Judge Andrew Napolitano:
Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) were both on hand for President Obama’s speech of June 17 and have taken the lead in the House and Senate respectively in crafting legislation to implement Obama’s proposal. The full House will begin debate on December 9 of a whole package of bills which collectively embody the President’s financial industry overhaul proposal. Meanwhile Senator Dodd’s senate banking committee is working on keeping its version of Obama’s proposal alive and moving forward in the Senate; however, they are lagging far behind the House on this issue.
According to CQ Today Online News for December 2, an omnibus financial services overhaul bill incorporating seven or so interrelated bills will be debated for three days on the floor of the House beginning December 9. Among the bills to be included in this legislative package are: H.R. 3126, a measure to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency; H.R. 3795, which would bring the financial derivatives market under federal regulation; H.R. 3269, which would impose standards for executive compensation; H.R. 1728, which would set mortgage standards and curb some lending practices; and H.R. 3996, which would set stricter standards for financial institutions that pose a risk to economic stability.
The Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009, H.R. 3996, was introduced by the Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Barney Frank (D-Mass.), and is a manifestation of Frank’s opposition to Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill, H.R. 1207. While H.R. 1207 has 317 cosponsors, Frank’s H.R. 3996 has none.
Frank’s bill is simply another expansion of federal power in the private financial sector. Section 1109 of H.R. 3996 states that the FDIC can, with the approval of the Federal Reserve and the President, “extend credit or guarantee obligations of depository institutions or other solvent companies that are predominantly engaged in activities that are financial in nature, if necessary to prevent financial instability during times of severe economic distress....”
Thus, the government would once again authorize itself to bail out financial institutions. And with that bailout comes a greater burden on the taxpayers, and the inevitable increase in regulation and outright takeover of the institutions by the federal government.
The continued increase in centralization of power vested in the Federal Reserve by H.R. 3996 is duly noted in other sections of the bill. In Sec. 1104, the Federal Reserve is granted the power to require a financial holding company to “sell or otherwise transfer assets or off-balance sheet items to unaffiliated firms, to terminate one or more activities, or to impose conditions on the manner in which the identified financial holding company conducts one or more activities.”
The very broad terminology lends itself to a similarly broad interpretation at the will of an economic central planning council formalized in the bill that would consist of the treasury secretary, the FED chairman, FDIC chairman, the comptroller of the currency, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Directory of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the SEC chairman, the NCUA (National Credit Union Administration) chairman, and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) chairman. The group would be known as the Financial Services Oversight Council, and many a financial institution would find themselves at the mercy of this panel.
The provisions of H.R. 3996 offer absolutely no economic or financial stability, but instead plenty of government regulation, centralization of power, and legalized plunder of the private sector. Contact your Congressman today and urge them to oppose H.R. 3996 and the whole package of financial services bills that are being bundled with it. And while you’re at it, you might want to mention that you would like to see Ron Paul’s H.R. 1207 to audit the Fed voted on as a standalone bill.
Trackback(0)
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
