— Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln
Today he’d write, “…and that government of Wall Street, by the corrupt, for the wealthy…”
The economy is still suffering from the worst financial crisis since the Depression, and widespread anger persists that financial institutions that caused it received bailouts of billions of taxpayer dollars and haven’t been held accountable for any wrongdoing. Yet the House Appropriations Committee has responded by starving the agency responsible for bringing financial wrongdoers to justice — while putting over $200 million that could otherwise have been spent on investigations and enforcement actions back into the pockets of Wall Street.
A few weeks ago, the Republican-controlled appropriations committee cut the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fiscal 2012 budget request by $222.5 million, to $1.19 billion (the same as this year’s), even though the S.E.C.’s responsibilities were vastly expanded under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Charged with protecting investors and policing markets, the S.E.C. is the nation’s front-line defense against financial fraud.
[…]
But cutting the S.E.C.’s budget will have no effect on the budget deficit, won’t save taxpayers a dime and could cost the Treasury millions in lost fees and penalties. That’s because the S.E.C. isn’t financed by tax revenue, but rather by fees levied on those it regulates, which include all the big securities firms.
[…]
An S.E.C. memo on the committee’s proposed budget warns: “We may be forced to decline to prosecute certain persons who violate the law; settle cases on terms we might otherwise not prefer; name fewer defendants in a given action; restrict the types of investigative techniques employed; or conclude investigations earlier than we otherwise would.”
.. Republican-controlled appropriations committee cut the SEC’s fiscal 2012 budget … the S.E.C.’s responsibilities were vastly expanded under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act..
That’s right, Pukes want their wallstreet sugar daddy’s to pursue their profits with unconstrained oversight. They’ll bury the act under “spending cuts” for the sleepy sheeple to see.
No one with a brain expected any different from the most ethically-challenged political club since George Wallace ran for office as the bringer of freedom to America.
Today, he’d probably be a Kool Aid Party member of Congress. Representing one of the Confederate States like Texas.
Cripes. He could run for Ron Paul’s seat next year if he were still alive and kicking.
We are living through the death throes of the Republican party. Oh well.
More money for Wall Street is what plants crave.
To (self) serve and (self) protect, Congress that is.
Please view the Oscar-winning documentary “Inside Job” by Charles Ferguson … It’s a semester’s worth of Economics 101 jammed into a two-hour film … The film gives a blow-by-blow explanation of the 2008 global financial meltdown … The film names the good guys and the bad guys … If after viewing this film, you believe that Wall Street is okay with self-regulation or de-regulation, you are absolutely nuts!!
Weren’t these these the people who, it turns out, were spending much of their days shopping and surfing porn on the net webs? Perhaps cutbacks won’t affect their efficiency much, after all. Although porn sites may suffer less traffic.
…from the head on down…
In other news, religo-sheep, Congressmen and the Wire Clotheshangers Lobby march in protest of the $2M spent by Planned Parenthood.
“…the Republican-controlled appropriations committee…”
The NY Times needs to hire a fact-checker. The appropriations committee has 16 Democrats and 14 Republicans.
It is Democrat-controlled.
It’s very simple: The Democrats control the Senate and the White House. Just produce a budget and vote on it. If the House won’t pass it or reconcile the budget, then you can blame the Republicans for being intransigent. But right now, the party of “no” is the only party that’s doing anything.
Something is wrong if a government agency can’t get by on $1.19 billion. Besides, the cuts shouldn’t even matter since “…the S.E.C. isn’t financed by tax revenue, but rather by fees levied on those it regulates, which include all the big securities firms.”
So who really cares if a government agency doesn’t get what amounts to an 19% increase in funds over what it had last year? I don’t see too many American families getting a pay increase of 19% in their income during the recession we are in.
Amen to #11 comment.
And it matters. What matters the most is total load of Government on Economy. It is damn to high. It is irrelevant if it is taxes or fees or cost of regulation. All of it must be cut or at least (as in this case) prevented from further growth.
#11 Recapping your points:
* SEC’s budget of 1.19billion is too large by your estimation.
* Increased staffing (including oversight of a thousand new “750 private fund advisers”) could be done with free donuts for all.
* The increase requested was for pay increases.
Did I miss anything?
Congress Ensures S.E.C. Can’t Protect Us From Wall Street
Damn! And they’ve been doing such a stellar job up until now…
#10 Chuck: Careful, my man. You will get nowhere with this bunch if all you’ve got is truth and logic on your side.
#11 & 12 – Yes, indeed. If ever there was an appropriate time for all guv agencies to hold the line on increases. They might even do it if Barry would ever submit a budget that required it. Or submitted ANY annual budget request in the last two and a half years.
Question: If the law requires the Prez to submit a budget to COngress every year and O’Bama hasn’t bothered since he came into office, why isn’t the Senate screaming to impeach him? Oh, Yeah. It would be racist…
To all the gripers out there:
I thought the Republicans were the Law ‘n Order party.
I guess next to go will be border enforcement.
C’mon illegal aliens. The INS is broke. You can just walk around the fence. That’s what the Republicans want. However, you may not want to go because you’d be hired to work by somebody who’s obviously mentally unbalanced.
Racing to be the next domino is the DEA.
C’mon drug smugglers. LIne up at the border and rev your engines. Shut down the home-growers before the cut into your market.
There goes Dallas, being inaccurate, silly, contrite,immature, missing the point and pulling Joy Behar jokes out of his ass. Again.
Nancy Pelosi much?
#10 Chuck said “The NY Times needs to hire a fact-checker. The appropriations committee has 16 Democrats and 14 Republicans.
It is Democrat-controlled.”
Did you not read the post or are you intentionally spreading misinformation? Here is the relevant piece you ignored: “the House Appropriations Committee has responded by starving the agency responsible for bringing financial wrongdoers to justice”.
The House, not the Senate. And the House committee has 29 Rep and 21 Dem. Here is a link: http://appropriations.house.gov/About/Members/
#12 how is the government a load on the economy? They spend more than they take in. They don’t sit on 1.3 trillion dollars like the business sector is. Or another 1 trillion that the financial sector is sitting on. Keeping money out of the economy is a burden that gets in the way of trading goods and services. Anyone that lets money flow is helping the economy happen! The problem is that the money is concentrated in too few hands. As long as that is true it is difficult to blame anything else.
#14 Animby
Chuck is not using facts for his argument since he does not seem to recognize that it was the Republican-controlled House that the post was mentioning.
You also said “Or submitted ANY annual budget request in the last two and a half years.” And yet the press release from the Republican-controlled House comm. references Obama’s budget request. “The bill includes a total of $19.9 billion in funding for the agencies, which is nearly $2 billion – or 9% – below last year’s level, nearly $6 billion below the President’s fiscal year 2012 request, and more than $700 million below the pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels enacted in 2008.”
So who is misinformed, you or the House committee?
Here is a link to the press release: http://appropriations.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=248454
#19 Cap’n Roo Steak:
I may have jumped aboard the Committee misnomer a little too quickly. I apologize.
However, if you’re going to quote a link, you should take the time to make sure understand it, He has not presented a Federal budget request yet in his administration. What you saw was a silly little $19.9 billion for a few agencies and the city of DC. I guarantee if he is in office long enough to actually get around to his Constitutional duty, the budget will have more zeroes.
Please, sometimes I enjoy being proven wrong. But you need some lessons in comprehension before you will be able to do it.
#21 – I was wrong – it is the House, Republican-controlled appropriations committee which is cutting funding.
However, the problem can be solved simply – once again, all the Democrat-controlled Senate has to do is propose and pass a budget, then they can start the reconciliation process with the House. I’m sure that during this process and agreement can be made on SEC funding.
Oh wait, the Senate hasn’t produced a budget in 2 years – oh, never mind.
None of that is NEARLY AS DISGUSTING as this!
“Through June 30, the upper chamber had passed the fewest bills since the Congressional Record started keeping monthly data in 1947. The Senate had also amassed the second-fewest total number of pages in the Record — a measure of floor action — and notched the sixth-fewest number of floor votes. … Analysts said Senate Democrats are likely trying to shield the chamber from having to take difficult votes ahead of what’s expected to be a tough election cycle next year.”
So while you liberal morons are moaning about the Repubs cutting funding to an inept and corrupt organization,
How about moaning that the Idiot DEMS are shutting down every thing else??
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/14/as-issues-pile-up-senate-sets-record-for-sloth/
Blaming either party is to participate in their E pluribus butt fuck ya. THEY ALL NEED TO GO, along with their staff.
Vote early vote often and rid yourself of government lice. Only you can prevent E pluribus butt fuck ya.
chuck and Animby, you’re thinking of the US Senate Committee on Appropriations which is currently chaired by Daniel Inouye. The Senate Committee primarily manages discretionary (i.e. pork barrel) spending. Ted Stevens made all the headlines through this committee when he was chairman.
Hal Rogers chairs the House Committee which is Republican controlled. Hal has been ripped up by everyone from the National Review to Rolling Stone and is widely regarded as one of the most corrupt politicians on the hill.
#11 Benjamin
$1.2 billion is chump change when you’re trying to regulate financial institutions with ~$70 trillion in unregulated OTC crud. Translation: Americans are going to get boned again by the banks.
Congress (either party) won’t have the backbone to clean up Wall Street. Expect foreign governments to eventually lean in on this and force the US into some self management. It just creates too much exposure for the rest of the world.
The complete lack of straightforward, common sense oversight is why 1/3 of US homes are now worth less than their mortgages. And why mortgage insurance can’t cover even 1% of losses.
The financial services sector in the US accounts for 40-50% of corporate profit now, and close to 10% of GDP. That is a huge shift of wealth over the last 30 years.
US financial institutions primarily make money through speculation now. Americans still think that banks are there to allocate risk and direct capital. That bus left long ago.
#25, 26 Well said. You would think overseeing $70T in wealth transfers would rate high on things to ensure don’t get fucked up.
Nope, Fox news said Bernie just forgot to carry the one and self regulation works well.
#16 Evidently, Pirate couldn’t dispute the clear interpretation stated.
The House defunded enforcement of the ban on light bulbs. I’m OK with the package deal.
If not, I’ll just have to startup my new business of selling heat balls that conveniently plug into a light socket, and emit some light to let you know they are working.
#14 Animby asked “If the law requires the Prez to submit a budget to COngress every year and O’Bama hasn’t bothered since he came into office, why isn’t the Senate screaming to impeach him? Oh, Yeah. It would be racist…”
Where did you get this ridiculous idea that Obama hasn’t submitted a single budget since he was elected? Are you hogging for yourself all the drugs you should be administering to your patients? Your claim seems moronic on the surface, but I really want to get to the bottom of it to satisfy my own curiosity. I’d like to see if there’s at least some minor basis for your claim, no matter how silly.
This refers to Obama’s 2011 budget, submitted in 2010:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020100981.html
This refers to Obama’s 2012 budget, submitted in 2011:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/14/AR2011021406114.html
Perhaps you believe that the Washington Post is part of a conspiracy to deceive the public into thinking that Obama is submitting budget proposals as required by law, so I’ll be happy to look at your arguments. Show me YOUR evidence that Obama has failed so miserably in the performance of his legal mandate that it might rise to the level of an impeachable offense (I won’t dignify the racial portion of your implication by rebutting it). Is there some allegation making the rounds in afternoon “teatime” discussions that he forgot to cross a ‘t’ or dot an ‘i’ in his budget proposals, making them null and void?
As Clara Peller used to ask, “Where’s the beef?”
#20 Animby said “He has not presented a Federal budget request yet in his administration. What you saw was a silly little $19.9 billion for a few agencies and the city of DC”
My first search for Pres. Obama’s budget yielded this: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703584804576144391529888296.html
Notice they are not referring to some piddling $19.9 billion but a full budget. Outlays of $3.729 trillion, receipts of $2.627 trillion, and a deficit of $1.1 trillion.
Lots of zeros there. From a trusted publication. So I wonder where exactly you come up with this fanciful idea that President Obama did not, in fact, submit this budget request? What am I not comprehending?