VIDEO: Bank Lobbyists Huddle For Another Secret Meeting With GOP Senators
Earlier today, President Obama traveled to New York to tell the nation’s most influential bankers to call off their “battalions of financial industry lobbyists” and embrace a new regulatory structure meant to avert another economic crisis. But around the same time back in Washington, D.C., bank lobbyists hosted a fundraiser for Senate Republicans, including Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who has become the Republican liaison for Wall Street fundraising.Gosh how did this happen. Republicans are expecting voters to rush to the polls in 2010 and 2012 to return them to power so they can look out for the interests of the average American. Yet they are already acting like the good old corrupt conservatives of 2000-2008. The party largely responsible for the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression. John Boehner slams Goldman Sachs' clout -- but pockets its cash The minority leader accuses Democrats of dancing to the big bank's tune -- but Goldman is giving more money to GOP
The invitation to the fundraiser, obtained by the Party Time blog of the Sunlight Foundation, shows that the it was hosted by lobbyists Wendy Grubb, Kirsten Chadwick, Scott Reed, and a variety of corporate PACs. Grubb is a top lobbyist for Citigroup, a bank that took taxpayer TARP funds and has yet to repay them. Chadwick, a former staffer to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), is a lobbyist for Zurich Financial Group, a financial services conglomerate.
ThinkProgress, along with several other journalists, waited outside of the fundraiser at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) building. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) walked quickly past reporters into his car, refusing to take questions. Both Sens. Cornyn and George Lemieux (R-FL) dodged reporters by driving into the NRSC’s underground lot.
Did Republican senators forget to send a memo to their comrades in the other chamber? While Republican leaders in the Senate contemplate a bipartisan compromise on financial reform legislation -- evidently because they have realized that protecting the big banks is unpopular -- nobody seems to have provided such wise guidance to the House Republican leadership. Minority Whip Eric Cantor is still warning that his caucus will oppose the Obama administration’s proposals, while Minority Leader John Boehner has published an angry partisan screed in Investors Business Daily, echoing the same exaggerations and distortions lately disowned by his party’s senators.Republicans are quick to point out that over the last few years Democrats have gotten more in total contributions from Goldman Sachs. True enough, but they still decided to pass meaningful financial reform and prosecute Goldman Sachs. This as Republicans climb in bed with G.S. and do their bidding. Republicans learned nothing from the Bush years and the Conservative Culture of Corruption.
Not surprisingly, Boehner's Op-Ed distorts the Democratic legislation to advance propaganda points. Sticking to the discredited "bailout" meme, he insists that "the largest Wall Street firms would become eligible for special treatment" including "exclusive access to a pre-existing bailout fund, a Treasury-backed line of credit and a government guarantee for any debt." But the bill creates no "bailout fund" -- only an industry-funded $50 billion resolution fund that would be used to shut down any major financial firm that becomes insolvent. Boehner also fails to note that the assets of such firms would be sold off, their equity wiped out, and their creditors likely reimbursed no more than would be available via bankruptcy.
