Financial Regulation, Immigration and Climate Legislation

1. FINANCE

The Senate prepares to vote on a financial regulation bill.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on the finance industry’s turn for the worse, and how the financial “reform” bill isn’t going to help.

“That bill contains little ‘reform,’ reinforcing the very features of the status quo that spawned the financial crisis.  Earlier, congressional Democrats blocked reform of the corrupt government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Obama administration lifted a $400 billion limit on bailing them out.  (Even though administration officials admitted that they were at the ‘core’ of ‘what went wrong’ in our financial system.)  At the direction of the Obama administration, Freddie Mac ran up more than $30 billion in losses to bail out mortgage borrowers, some of whom have high incomes. Federal regulators sought to make Freddie Mac hide the resulting losses from the SEC and the public.”

2. IMMIGRATION

A Heritage Foundation report finds that deportation of undocumented immigrants has fallen during the Obama administration.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh points out that deportation has actually increased during the Obama presidency.

“According to the corrected deportations data, deportations under the Obama administration have far exceeded those of the Bush administration.”

3. ENVIRONMENT

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promises to major climate legislation to a vote in the next few weeks.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis Jr. talks about how not referring to this cap-and-trade bill as a cap-and-trade bill is just political doublespeak.

“By the end of 2009, cap-and-‘tax’ had become a political liability, and this year proponents fear even to speak its name – especially as the November elections approach. So what’s a poor progressive politician to do? Why, dissemble, obfuscate, and prevaricate to fool the voter.”