Citigroup knows how to schmooze Congress– and how to write legislation, apparently.
Ever since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reinstated some regulations on Wall Street gamblers in 2010, the banksters have been trying to reduce or eliminate those regulations.
The newest chapter in this banking regulation saga finds Citigroup writing the latest round of financial regulations and wining and dining Congressional representatives– including Arizona Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Kyrsten Sinema– to make the legislation happen. In Sinema's case, it worked. As a member of the Financial Services Committee, she voted with Republicans to allow the Citigroup Protection Act… er… relaxed banking regulations to move out of committee.
I have been in Arizona long enough to have seen Sinema rise through the ranks of the Arizona Legislature and move to the US Congress. When she was in the State Senate, I enjoyed watching her Facebook posts cracking on Arizona Teapublicans and the video speeches where she openly challenged recalled Senate President Russell Pearce. Although I backed her for Congress because of her strong stance on women's issues, I'm seriously disgusted with her overall performance in Congress.
For months, Maricopa County members of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) have been urging Sinema to support the Financial Speculation Tax (AKA the Robin Hood Tax), which would charge a tiny fee on every Wall Street trade– generating billions of dollars, while reducing risky, computerized micro-trades.
Not only has Sinema not supporting the Robin Hood Tax, her recent vote exempts many Wall Street trades from any regulation. This is the wrong direction for the American people. How many Wall Street bankers live in CD9? How many people who would benefit from the revenue generated by the Robin Hood Tax live in CD9? It's time for Sinema to do the math. Voting with Wall Street is a vote against her constituents in Arizona.
If you live in CD9, it's time to call Sinema and tell her you thought you were voting for that fiery State Senator– not the banksters' handmaiden.
For more details, check out these stories…
Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills
Big Bank Lobbyists Help Write Bank Regulation Bills for Congress
[A bit of regulation/deregulation history… You'll remember that after risk-taking capitalists plunged the country into the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 in attempt to reign in dangerous Wall Street behavior. Except for President Ronald Reagan's disastrous financial deregulation which led to the savings and loan crash in the 1980s, the economy was chugging along for decades under Glass-Steagall. So good, in fact, that President Bill Clinton decided the country no longer needed it. Oops, bad idea. As we all know, allowing the banksters to run wild led to 2008 worldwide financial collapse. Although the American people called for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, all the Congress could muster in 2010 was Dodd-Frank, which doesn't go far enough.]