GOP Blocks Debate On Wall Street "Reform"

So the Democrats got their ObamaCare bill passed and view it as a great victory. Now they focus on Wall Street "reform"... and are following the same pattern that they did with ObamaCare. Instead of crafting a reasonable bill that has a chance of receiving bipartisan support, they actually REJECTED a bipartisan solution and want to open debate on a highly liberal measure that would AGAIN concentrate power over private-sector economics in government hands. And, I might add, it would fail to "solve" any problems.

And, not unexpectedly, the GOP voted against opening debate on the bill... and now the political maneuvering starts in earnest.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/94485-gop-blocks-wall-st-bill

Senate Republicans held ranks on Monday and blocked a Democratic effort to overhaul the financial system and crack down on Wall Street.

In a 57-41 vote, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes necessary to proceed to the Wall Street bill.

One Senate Democrat, Ben Nelson (Neb.), joined Republicans in voting against the motion. Nelson had reportedly been pushing for a provision backed by Warren Buffett that would have largely exempted existing derivatives contracts from the bill’s new rules.

Democrats are going to try and use this for political purposes, to again paint the GOP as the "party of no," friends of wall street bankers, enemies of ordinary citizens, and maybe they even cheated on their fourth-grade spelling tests. Make no mistake, the coming fooforah is entirely engineered to benefit Democrats for their upcoming elections.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) immediately moved to intensify the pressure on Republicans by scheduling additional procedural votes on Tuesday and Wednesday that would open debate on the financial reform bill.

President Barack Obama issued a statement to express his “deep disappointment” that Republicans had blocked opening debate on the measure as other Democrats in the House and Senate rushed to put out statements charging the GOP with holding up the bill.

Reid will have the Senate vote on a motion to reconsider the measure Tuesday and also set up a new vote on a motion to proceed to the bill for Wednesday.

Democrats believe the series of votes will give them political ammunition against the GOP even as they continue negotiations on the issue with Republicans.

The Democrats COULD defuse the entire situation by changing the legislation to actually BE bipartisan in nature... but they don't want to do that.

Look, the bill in question is a mistake that won't work. It ignores a LARGE chunk of the problem, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and focuses instead on some new "consumer protection" agency. And that won't do ANYTHING to fix the things that caused the problems in the first place.

The fundamental rift isn't that Democrats want reform and Republicans don't. The fundamental rift is that Democrats want government to step in and control the private sector and Republicans don't... at least, not as much. I find myself identifying more with the GOP on this one, even though I'm not convinced they really mean it. A huge government takeover of the private sector isn't the answer, especially since the government bears a large portion of responsibility for creating the meltdown in the first place!

Can the government fix what the government broke? No, not using the same philosophy that broke the system in the first place.

So Democrats aren't really offering a workable solution... passing a bill is all the victory they want or need. It doesn't have to really WORK, it just has to earn them points so they can get re-elected. Why? Because they can always blame somebody else for the failure of the bill (Bush, the GOP, the economy, you name it) and then start "tweaking it" to "make it work better."

They don't want to fix the system, because that would take away the urgency. You HAVE noticed, I trust, that EVERYTHING is being painted by PresBo and the Democrats as "critical," an "emergency" that needs "immediate action?" And that every such bill being passed is "historical" in nature?

That's the playbook they're playing from: create a crisis, then use that crisis to justify whatever it is that you want to do.