As the end of the year approaches, Wall Street lobbyists have been putting the “pedal to the metal,” trying to ensure that there are some holiday gifts for them wrapped up in the year-end spending bill. Just as they did last year, Wall Street is planning to jam dangerous and widely unpopular deregulation onto the “must-pass” spending bill. But many lawmakers have been pushing back, saying that it’s “cynical and corrupt.” From speaking out on Twitter to making speeches on the floor of the Senate, lawmakers have said NO to riders that roll back financial reform. Here is a compilation of some of their comments.
On December 8th, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) organized several speeches with his colleagues on the Senate floor against Wall Street deregulation on the year-end spending bill with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). (TRANSCRIPT)