I had written Sen. McCain about the financial meltdown and the recognized fact that the "reform" of financial institutions by the Dodd-Frank Act did not solve the problem, and, in fact, that the banks are larger than ever. The ex-CEO of Bank of America on a Moyer's interview a couple of months ago said that the same activities that led to the meltdown are still going as before, and that the same meltdown could well happen all over again.
Sen. McCain, in no doubt a form letter on the issue, agreed to the above comments and said that in his S. 1720 bill there is a repeal of Dodd-Frank. I checked the bill out on Thomas and found that, indeed, one of the 79 portions includes that repeal. However, most of the other 78 portions have some of the most egregious proposals imaginable. Among them is a proposal to amend the Clean Air Act to declare that CO2 and methane are not air pollutants and that his "Energy Tax Prevention Act" is to "prohibit...the EPA from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action related to...the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change". This just touches on the issue but gives you the idea. Read the whole thing if you want to see where his mentality is on that and multiple other issues.
I spoke to his aide in D.C. and he said that he is pushing to "reinstate the original provisions of the Glass-Steagal Act" as his letter stated. That is the good news and that he is trying to round up support; the original effort was buried in committee in 2009. These efforts are not likely to have any success until the next legislative session, if then, but at least he is committed to try.
So here we have the latter effort, truly commendable and needing to be done, and the former S. 1720 which is a lengthly laundry list of ultra-conservative stances that boggles the mind. Go figure!
Rick Graap
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