So the Republicans succeeded in removing 19 billion in taxes on the banksters from finreg, which led John Carney to write this:
The Republicans are expected to accept this deal.
So funny.
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.
When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
Black Jesus loves a paper trail.
Infrastructure week. at last.
“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”
Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.
Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.
Let there be snark.
Damn right I heard that as a threat.
Battle won, war still ongoing.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
Accountability, motherfuckers.
Let’s finish the job.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
Bark louder, little dog.
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
Come on, man.
Kryptik
Well, who knows. The deal might have included lowering taxes on someone who CAN’T afford a vacation home, and Republicans just can’t have that, can they?
CynDee
OT: Any dog pictures today? Just askin’.
nanute
Let me see if I’ve got this right: Scott Brown the Tea Party favorite has decided that shoring up the banking community with taxpayer funds (TARP), is better than making the responsible party pay for ineptitude. Brilliant!
Spaghetti Lee
Jesus, $19B is pocket change to these crooks.
I’m going to buck the trend and not blame Feingold, because you know what? Someone has to stand firm on the left if we’re going to shift the dialogue in this country in any meaningful way. Instead, I’ll just blame the Republican party for being a bunch of bought-and-paid-for crooks and corporate errand boys, every last filthy stinking one of them.
Zifnab
Wall Street must be really thrilled at those tax cuts, because the DOW just drop 2.6%
Malron
@Spaghetti Lee: Damn that I do blame Feingold because he’s a grandstanding asshat. He’s also getting a challenge from the right in his home district, which should tell you something about how much love he gets back home.
bemused
I’ll have what John is drinking because I’m not laughing. On second thought, not a good idea the mood I’m in. I’d probably end up crying in my beer.
Bob L
Good to see the GOP is serious about the need to balance the budget with stopping those taxes.
Ash Can
John Carney wrote that? I thought getting shitfaced on the job was frowned upon.
John O
I haven’t been doing much blogging or reading blogs precisely because this stuff tends to make me want to open a vein.
This one I still visit, though, because it treats the horror appropriately, but it’s not funny to me anymore, either.
We’re going down.
jeffreyw
@CynDee:
How about some lasagna?
CynDee
@jeffreyw: Mmmm, smells so gooood, and what beautiful layers.
burnspbesq
Would you rather have finreg and no bank tax, or no finreg?
The unpleasant truth is that the bad guys currently have the world by the balls. If you don’t like it, you know what needs to be done.
Comrade Javamanphil
Frankly, I wouldn’t mind so much if they would at least tell me what the safe word is.
burnspbesq
@jeffreyw:
That settles the question of where I am going to dinner tonight. Was leaning toward Stage Deli, but Patsy’s is now in the lead.
Rosalita
@jeffreyw:
send some over please…
burnspbesq
@Comrade Javamanphil:
There is no safe word. You just have to take it until they get bored with you.
geg6
Oh, I don’t know, John. I was just kinda thinking that Glenzilla inviting Jeffrey Goldberg to make a stop in Gaza to tell Palestinians why they deserve what Israel does to them is deserved before their joint jaunt to visit the Kurds so Glenn can know why invading Iraq was intrinsically good because the Kurds were persecuted a decade earlier. Wonder if they’d let me tag along. I’m willing to bet that trip would be a fucking laughfest.
That said, I am honestly wondering if this country is even worth saving any more. Any country that thinks fin reg means giving tax cuts to those who created the need for fin reg is a country that deserves to die.
joe from Lowell
No, “the Republicans” are not going to accept this deal. Scott Brown is going to accept this deal.
Haven’t they figured it out in DC yet? Scott Brown is a free agent. He doesn’t owe crap to the Republican Party, or the Republican Senate Caucus. They didn’t do squat for him. He climbed out of a 60-something point hole by himself, and then they all swooped in to ride on his parade float at the last minute.
Scott Brown is cutting deals for himself and his own political standing in his state. The Republicans must be furious at him for treating with the enemy on his own terms like this – they’re still working the Party of No strategy.
The guy is a lot more conservative than I’d like – I’m more of a Ted Kennedy/Sheldon Whitehouse guy myself – but Scott Brown really is his own guy.
jeffreyw
Buddy seems to be trying to tell me something…
fucen tarmal
@burnspbesq:
this is kind of how i feel, anything short of a jerry lewis labor day like telethon of castrations of wall streeters from the top through the middle rungs, (you know, remember the true spirit of the holiday and all that) and accompanying regulations to remove much of what has become standard and accepted practice(which on wall st means you must do it, because if you don’t make more than the other guy you are falling behind) from our financial system was bound to disappoint people.
while i wish it could be, i know it can’t. like hcr and single payer.
slag
@joe from Lowell:
Ummm…I’m pretty sure the MA Democratic Party helped out there. He owes them.
fucen tarmal
@Comrade Javamanphil:
its more in how you get them to change the grip.
beltane
I wish we had a viable communist party in this country. Not because I would join, but because we need Wall Street and the Republicans to be afraid of losing everything. The rest of us live with this fear every day of our lives, why shouldn’t they?
joe from Lowell
@ slag
Heh. And Martha.
But don’t be petty; that was a great campaign he ran. The guy’s got some game.
The point is, he doesn’t owe the DC Republicans a thing. They owe him. They don’t have anything they can threaten him with; he threatens them.
Lolis
Oh cut it with the BS that Scott Brown is his own man. He has pretty much voted lockstep against everything, including health care. Scott Brown voted for a similar health care plan in MA that was not even deficit-reducing. Scott Brown is a Republican. And he is a corporate shill. The sad thing is our media won’t call him out on it. And it is sad that people like Joe from lowell think he is swell. Was it the truck?
slag
@Lolis: I’d be willing to concede joe from Lowell‘s point that Scott Brown is not beholden to the Republican Party. And that he’s just stupid/assholish all on his own. Or at least that he prefers negotiating for stupid/assholish policies all on his own.
EconWatcher
Lolis:
joe from lowell can speak for himself, but I don’t think he ever said that Scott Brown was “swell.” He said that the way Brown got elected makes him a freelancer, which appears to be true.
If Brown helps get finreg passed, that will be the proof. And it can be used against other Republicans who voted against the “bipartisan bill to clean up Wall Street.” That’s why they want lockstep.
None of which is to say that he’s a good guy.
beltane
@Lolis: But Scott Brown is so purty, and his purty daughter can sing and is available in case you’re interested. In a trash culture such as ours, it is the biggest piece of garbage that comes out on top.
4tehlulz
Scott Brown is a troll.
He’s minor league though. He doesn’t drive everyone insane like Obama does. Once he does that, he will become a troll master.
frankdawg
THANK GOD! these tax cuts will finally bring balance to the force & everything will be OK again.
The depression is over! Hallelujah!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Mr. cole, I have a comment in moderation in the Taibbi thread. Would you please release it when you have a chance?
demo woman
During the health care debate, I did think that it was important to pass health care no matter how imperfect. That is something that can be improved over time because the public will support it. Social Security has changed over time. Financial regulation is different. There should be regulation and the public knows it. If the Republicans want to filibuster, let them. Let the public decide which party will protect them from the assholes.
lamh32
OT, but Larry King announces the end of CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’
http://blog.al.com/scenesource/2010/06/larry_king_announced_the_end_o.html
kay
Is there some reason we have to give huge banks 11 billion dollars, to cover the costs of regulating huge banks?
I know they’re Republicans, so they can’t raise taxes, so that’s the ideological position, but if the 11 billion is coming from TARP, it’s coming from taxpayers.
It has to come from somewhere, and it’s banks or taxpayers, right?
The Republican position is ” get it from taxpayers”?
Ash Can
Color me skeptical on Scott Brown. I’m betting that if Scott Brown cooperates with the Dems in any way, shape, or form, the GOP will lock him in the janitor’s closet and piss on him through the keyhole.
GregB
The South is rising again.
By rising I mean when they are laying on their backs.
beltane
@kay: The Republican position is to drive up the deficit and then use the deficit as a pretext to eliminate social security and drive us all into an early death from starvation and exposure.
arguingwithsignposts
Since this topic is so depressing, and I haven’t uploaded all my photos yet from last weekend in the Windy City, I thought I’d throw out this OT photo: I was too scared to peek inside to see if Brick Oven Bill was in this display.
kay
The money to “cover the bill’s cost” is coming from TARP.
And TARP came from taxpayers.
So taxpayers are paying the bank tax? Are we pretending that “shutting down TARP” which was established using taxpayer funds to prop up banks, will somehow create revenue to pay the costs of this program?
I’m not seeing any bank involvement here. They’re just moving taxpayer money around?
kay
@beltane:
I know finance want to get their hot little hands on Social Security. They finally figured out they aren’t creating any value, and they need a new pool of money to move around, so they’re literally targeting widows and orphans.
They’ve been after it for twenty years.
OUR JOB is to not give them any money to lose at the table.
I look at it as a completely adversarial relationship. They want all your money.
LarsThorwald
There are no poor people. I mean, none that count.
Allison W.
F- Feingold’s principles. If Dems had his vote, they wouldn’t have to court Scott. When your principles make something better then Hurrah!!!, this? no it didn’t make the bill better.
Allison W.
And you know its hypocritical to call Liberal’s principled when they block legislation yet a centrist Dem who does that is smeared with a republican label. Don’t think for one second that all Liberal Dems are virtuous.
someguy
You have to admit it’s pretty funny, that a party whose voters tend to be dumbasses and lower middle class, fights like hell and jeopardizes its chances by seeking special benefits for the people – the Wall Street elite – who vote and donate Dem and do everything in their power to screw Republicans in the ass at every turn…
I find it amusing anyhow. The question isn’t what’s the matter with Kansas, it’s what’s the matter with the moron Republican elected officials. They too fail to follow their self-interest…
Spaghetti Lee
@Allison W.:
I don’t give a shit if he’s “virtuous”, 95% of politicians aren’t. I couldn’t care less why he’s taking his position, but I don’t mind seeing someone taking it for once. Usually I’m A-OK with compromise, but there’s only so much you can stomach.
danimal
And Charlie Brown’s gonna kick that football halfway to the moon…
I hate relying on the good faith of Republicans.
Nick
@joe from Lowell: This is kinda true. Brown doesn’t seem phased by the threat of teabaggers. He’s the most popular politician in Massachusetts for some reason. What’s the worst that can happen? He loses in 2012?
Scott Brown is their Ben Nelson…they know he’s the best they can do in Massachusetts. The difference is Brown votes with his party more often. We’ll see what happens when he has a 30% approval rating and is trailing Mike Capuano by double digits.
MattR
@Allison W.: Well, I for one have no problem with principled centrist Democrats. However, when a Blue Dog uses false Republican frames and talking points to oppose a bill while receiving large amounts of money from groups interested in the failure of the bill then I start to become skeptical of how principled they really are.
slag
@kay:
That seems to be the case. From what I’ve read anyway.
asiangrrlMN
Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Fuck. A pox on both their houses. Feh.
Ailuridae
@kay:
Not to be overly pissy but the bank tax was just a fudge to get around PAYGO (which is looking less-wise all the time). If the bank tax is a good idea (and I suspect it is) just pass it in the next budget/reconciliation go around.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not a big Feingold fan (grandstanding sanctimonious asshat seems to me reasonably apt description), but I don’t much blame him for this one. I more blame a political establishment that so quickly allowed filibusters to become the norm, and the voters of Maine (and Massachusetts) for falling for the ‘independent republican’ thing over and over and over and over again.
Bob Loblaw
@Nick:
Hey, Nick, are you still trying to push the narrative that bank lobbies are flailing around desperately in a state of panic over the “impending doom” this regulation package will bring them? Or has that horse finally left the barn?
The hedge fund/I-bank industry just fucked over the taxpayers for $19B post-conference reconciliation just because they could. They’re really, really good, and even though they’re a bunch of whiny bitches most of the time over pretty much anything, they aren’t scared of this bill.
demo woman
@asiangrrlMN: Your comment is why the dems will lose in the fall. Why bother voting but the alternative is toooooo much to bear, I guess.
Also, too.
asiangrrlMN
@demo woman: Did I say anything about not voting? No, I did not. I was just venting–that does not preclude me from getting my nonexistent ass to the voting place in the fall and voting.
And, I have voted the lesser of evil more times than I care to count. At some point, the Democratic Party has to decide that it will take the hit that comes with making unpleasant/unpopular decisions. I have never been one of the stay home and not vote types, but that doesn’t mean I have to like everything the Democratic Party has done.
Uloborus
I’m adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude. I remember HCR being DOA too many times. And as someone pointed out above, a bank tax, while I’d love to see more of them, is not actually any kind of integral part of financial regulation.
arguingwithsignposts
@asiangrrlMN: is in the threads early tonight.
On point, one can wish a pox on both their houses and still vote for one over the other. Lincoln, Nelson and the other blue dogs are doing their alleged constituents no favors, nor are the maine twins. Rusty Farm Implements(tm) are called for, imho.
arguingwithsignposts
@Uloborus:
I’m more concerned about the watering down of the Volker rule and derivatives language.
The Senate sucks. Period.
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: Exactly. And now, I am disappearing until the late-night shift. Talk to you later!
demo woman
@asiangrrlMN: I certainly did not mean you..sorry. I was also venting because I think dem turnout is going to suck in the fall.
A lot of dems feel the same. fuck, fuck , fuck
Starfish
Financial reform needs to be meaningful. You can create a “Hookers and Blow for Bankers” bill and call it financial regulation, but it doesn’t mean that it is.
I hated how NPR was talking about how great financial reform was because there would be a consumer watch dog agency that would be housed in the Fed and not be able to go after bad auto loans.
There were no leverage limits put on banks. No one said anything about high frequency trades. What was said about derivatives seemed pretty weak.
We need real financial reform. Half-assing it like health care is not good enough in this case because you need a credible financial system if you expect to have any meaningful economic growth.
demo woman
@Starfish: Yup!
Mark S.
OT- Sharron Angle on outlawing abortion in cases of rape and [spam filter word]:
I am really looking forward to a non-Rasmussan poll for this race.
joe from Lowell
Blow it out your hole, LOLis. I voted against the guy, and I’m going to vote against him again.
You clearly don’t know squat about Brown’s time in office, and are up in the air on your own obsessive-partisan thing. I didn’t say I liked the guy, or even agreed with his politics. Sadly, you can’t even tell the difference.
IM
18 Billion for a vote is a step price. But the real problem is that Brown isn’t a chicago politican.
You know someone, who when bought, stays bought.
I thought there was already a deal.
Restrung
@asiangrrlMN:
sweet. thanks for the laugh. I got it.
IM
You clearly don’t know squat about Brown’s time in office
Yes, but what do you know or anybody about him.
I have the impression that he has just reneged on a deal. How independent can he really be or how can you compromise with someone who doesn’t seem to be bond by his own word?
joe from Lowell
Seriously, do you think the Republicans want a negotiated settlement? You think they’re happy about Brown negotiating to sell his vote for some cowbell for his home-state donors? Is that what the Congressional Republicans have been doing for the past year and a half – accepting the general framework offered by the Democrats, but negotiating for minor changes to get some stuff?
Of course, that must just be my heart going pitter-pat over the underwear model’s beefy pecks. No way I actually know something about politics and my home state senator.
IM
The question is if Brown wants a negotiated settlement. Or just unilateral concessions.
joe from Lowell
He’s done this before. He’s going to get some shiny thing and back the bill. Just you watch.
How independent can someone be if they negotiate dishonestly in order to get all the stuff they can for themselves? Um, pretty gosh darn independent. In fact, it’s someone like that who’s more likely to kick the party leadership to the curb and look out for himself.
I don’t understand why people think these things I’m saying about Brown are compliments. What part of “Scott Brown is looking out for Scott Brown, not his party,” is a compliment?
Here, try this: “Ben Nelson doesn’t care about the Democratic Party. Ben Nelson is just looking out for Ben Nelson.”
I guess I think Ben Nelson is dreamy, too.
joe from Lowell
I don’t understand what this means. He doesn’t get any concessions if the bill doesn’t pass, meaning, if he doesn’t vote for it.
IM
I was not talking about compliments. I was just asking how someone of so limited reliability can be useful to the Democratic Party. So he will annoy the republican party. But the goal is not that but getting a somewhat meaningful financial reform care bill through the senate.
And ACA or whatever the term is has shown how republicans can gain concessions for no votes. The democrats without Feingold but with a Byrd replacement and the wto senators from maine would be 60 votes too and Brown can vote no and get his concession.
joe from Lowell
I still don’t understand this. It’s not like they’re passing things for Scott Brown, and then expecting him to vote for something at a later date. They’re negotiating with Scott Brown by changing a bill that he will then vote for.
Tell me, when did you start thinking that the $18 billion bank tax and continuing the practice of making banks that don’t want TARP loans – the two things Brown is trying to get removed – were the difference between a meaningful bill and an meaningless one? Was it, by any chance, the moment you heard that those were what Scott Brown was negotiating for?
fucen tarmal
@Mark S.:
shorter: what happens in vages stays in vages.
unfortunately her statement was just enough of a cipher, to not viscerally offend the people it should.
kay
@Ailuridae:
Thank you. I don’t understand this legislation.
I can’t follow finance. I’d walk around in a constant state of rage.
Honestly, when they crash again, in 8.5 years, I think they should go under. Not nationalization, not bail outs, but just crash. I don’t want to hear about “contagion” or all the horrible things that are going to happen to me. I’ll just roll the dice on all that.
IM
But the object is to pass a bill. Not, as seems more important to you to annoy the republican leadership in congress.
I never said anything about these points making the difference. Stop building strawman.
I still don’t see why Brown can not get the mentioned concessions and then turn around and say no. Why not a third dip at the well? It is possible to re-open conference a third time?
Bob Loblaw
I think Kerry’s comment on climate bill legislation rivals Mr. Carney in the humor department:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/06/a_price_on_carbon_but_not_much.html#comments
Will wonders never cease.
Mnemosyne
@Spaghetti Lee:
Because the best possible way to shift the dialogue to the left is to throw your lot in with the right and let them kill things with your help.
I’m starting to think you people have no idea how the Overton window is even supposed to work. Hint: buying into right-wing frames and supporting right-wing politicians when they block legislation moves things to the right, not to the left.
Redshirt
I’m losing faith in the very notion of accountability – I mean, for example, how can you as a Republican go back home to your Southern Plantation and not catch heat from the teabaggers for bailing out Wall Street firms so blatantly, while they all scream for blood and no bailouts?
I know, I know – it’s them democrats who are to blame. But still, is there no lie, no hypocrisy, no deception too large for these remaining Republican dead enders won’t accept wholesale from their masters who are bought whole by Corporate interests, the very interests they lash out against?
Nick
@Redshirt:
because all that matters back home is that you tried to stop the negro muslim Kenyan usurper.
Sly
@Redshirt:
The only thing more powerful than the venality of a politician is the stupidity/laziness of his or her constituents. In this respect, all politicians are perfectly accountable.
slippy
@beltane: I’m in. Anything to make Wall Street crooks shake in their boots.
I think the only course at this point that would really change how things work is to make them live in perpetual fear of being strung up from the lampposts.
Corner Stone
@Bob Loblaw:
It is interesting, isn’t it? Wall St. HATES this bill…yet, they seem to be doing pretty a’ight by it.
Nick
@beltane:
You know, I know you don’t realize it, but they are in fact afraid of losing everything.
Nick
@Bob Loblaw:
I’ve decided, much like the teabaggers, trying to convince morons like you of reality is futile because you’re just going to believe what you want to believe.
You answered your own question. Of course bank lobbyists are flalling around desperately, that’s why they were able to kill the damn bank tax you idiot!
They aint scared of this bill? How many of them do you know?
Nick
@Corner Stone:
Of course they’re not doing alright by it, but keep living in your alternate universe.
Corner Stone
@Nick: I’ll defer to your intimate knowledge of Wall St. insiders.
You’re the Lara Logan of Broad & Wall.
Bernard
the plantation is headquartered in DC, run by agents called Congressmen and doing quite well, thank you very much. now if only you “little people” would just STFU and pay for the austerity measures we have decreed necessary. like the First Bailout, things will work much better for the Market. After all, the Market is what matters. not you “little people,” who need to STFU and pay for the glorious gifts we have deigned to award ourselves with.
Remember, render unto Caesar!!!
take austerity measures like good children. or else!
Nick
@Corner Stone:
If by that you mean, like Lara Logan and military leaders, I have unedited, uninterrupted access to the thoughts and opinions of Wall St. Bankers, then, yes, that’s me. But don’t ever accuse me of being a mouthpiece for those shards of slime because I’d gladly knock you in the fucking face. I lost my job as a news producer in part because I refused to do their bidding. I’ve been fighting right wing bias in the news for years. And you?
But I wouldn’t expect you to believe me. If 15 CEOs of banks and investment firms came to you and panned the bill, you’d think they were really lying and they loved to bill and were pretending to hate it to convince you to support it so it can pass.
Much like the teabaggers, if you sources of information told you the sky was green, you’d tell me the color blue wasn’t really blue but green.
You are so against the idea that quite possibly the government could do something worthy that you would find fault in anything. If they reinstated Glass-Steagall or passed single payer, people like you would comb through the legislation to find the most obscure resemblance of a loophole to scream SELLOUT! And you wonder why it’s so difficult to convince people that government should take over healthcare or create jobs…because you’ve helped convince the country that government is inept and useless. I can’t possibly imagine why the President and Democrats in congress “abandoned” you.
Corner Stone
@Nick: Ahhh, the vaunted internet tough guy.
And no, I don’t believe you, about anything you’ve said on this blog. Your story and background have changed multiple times to “cover” the industry you needed it to in order to present a false patina and push your bullshit. You were a producer, then a journalist covering Wall St., or some political reporter, or something else. Honestly, I can’t keep track.
The only consistent theme you’ve presented is how you hate anyone to the left of you.
joe from Lowell
IM,
IM
Of course it is – that’s why they’re negotiating with Brown: in order to pass a bill in the Senate. They’re making concessions in order to get his vote.
eyeroll. I love how you wrote this immediately before accusing me of building a straw man.
Because he won’t get the concessions.
joe from Lowell
Oh, look, the firebagger waited to see what got dropped in order to pass the bill, and the retroactively decided that that was the really important part.
Again.
Hoocoodaknowed?
Nick
@Corner Stone:
Yes because it isn’t possible to work for a newspaper and television station in New York City and not cover politics and Wall St. at the same time.
You don’t believe me because you don’t want to believe, that’s fine. Live in your delusion. Like I said, if Democrats said the sky was blue, you’d think it was green.
burnspbesq
@Nick:
You’re a charlatan.
Spill everything you know, with names attached, or shut up and go away.
Corner Stone
@Nick:
Unlike how you operate Nick, I evaluate situations and make my own decisions. I don’t need someone to tell me “Wall St. HATES this bill” so I can whip my joint out and start fapping because if they HATE then I must LOVE it.
And I don’t believe you because while it is possible to hold many positions over a career, and even simultaneously in some situations, your story always seems to have you working in the just right position to be a self-described authority.
Now you’re telling us all here that one good aspect of the FinReg bill is that Wall St. HATES the bill. And you know this because according to you:
I find this claim highly dubious.