Dems Overcome GOP Filibuster With 60-40 Vote To Advance Financial Reform

If the primary was still going on, Specter would have voted against cloture.

They still have amendments to add to it, but at least they can get this started.

This one will bury you Rep's. And thanks to the Tea Party Elect Sen Brown the new Dem senator

When I said that I fully expected the Dem's to cave on real banking reform, just as they caved on real health care reform, he was incredulous, believing that they couldn't fail to reform our system because our financial state is in such dire straits. Hah! My prediction is right on track. At least my senator, Maria Cantwell, has the guts to stand up for what is right.

Are people forgetting that this bill can be -- and will be made stronger in conference with the House? This is not final passage.

It's sad to see Democrats miss this historic opportunity to do something meaningful to reign in the abuses of Wall Street...

Glass Steagall should be reinstated and the provisions on derivative trading should be strengthened. I also would like to see clearer limits on ATM fees, state regulation of credit card interest rates, and payday lending practices, but that is probably hoping for too much. However, at some point, the perfect becomes the enemy of the good The Senate legislation is definitely an improvement over doing nothing, even in its current form. Whether it is enough is hard to say.

I wonder if the idiots we send to Washington ever passed a bill the way it was written. Seems to me they don't think this stuff through very well if every bill has to be supplemented with half a dozen amendments. I'm for just scrapping it if it has to be amended, as it must be seriously flawed.

The Dems Stopped a Filibuster!!! It's about time.

This video is my commentary on the idiocy of this Senate ritual:

http://bit.ly/9iegrc

Coongrats, Dems!

As the bills has wound it's way through the Senate, rather than weakening it as happened with the Health Care Reform, this one actually got much tougher. I am glad that Dodd is retiring because he has been nothing but a hindrance through all of this. I am just praying that Blanche Lincoln's derivatives regulations remain intact! That is a very important set of regulations and MUST be included if we are to avoid another disaster like we had in 2008!

The bill should include the Volcker rule. Given the support of Sanders and Levin for cloture, I'm hopeful something is in the works.

As with health care, it appears the Senate will now debate toothless financial "reform" legislation, likely to be watered down even more in debate -- i.e., "reform" in name only.

Notice how this is happening. The Republicans, of course, strictly adhere to the Party of No strategy, partly to frustrate Obama -- but more likely to serve their corporate owners.

Republican recalcitrance makes it easy for the Democrats to justify "compromise." They work really, really hard to create the illusion they're working to find workable compromise for the People, when it seems they are actually working to dilute proposed legislation -- in order to better serve their corporate owners.

And tragically, the first official act of whomever we elect to Congress will be to get on the corporate dole -- and will then be compelled their deep pocket corporate owners.

The next time someone asserts we should literally return to the considerations of the founding fathers, remind them the founding fathers never contemplated corporate ownership of Congress. What else did they not contemplate?

Anytime the Dems succeed, leave it to the left to cast it as a "huge defeat". Why is this?

Republicans tend to gloat triumphalist over anything they can spin as a victory, no matter how tenuous. Liberals seem to love wallowing in their own failure and impotence, even when they achieve big things.

Historical health care bill after 60 years of trying? "Missed opportunity"

Biggest financial re-regulation since the New Deal era - "rearranging the deck chairs"

I wonder if this kind of kneejerk negativity, where every Dem leader is a 'betrayer' and 'failure', and every bill should be "killed", helps the long march of progressive ideas or hurts it.

Honestly, the lack of historical perspective by certain posters is mind-boggling!
Do those who complain about how "weak" the WSR bill is, or bitch about the spineless, or worse, complicit Democratic Senators, have ANY idea what it took to get Glass-Steagall passed? A depression, that's what! 25% unemployement, that amount or more of underemployed workers, NO unemployement insurance! More farm foreclosures than buyers (if the farmers didn't stop the auctions with shotguns, that is)! Elderly people eating out of garbage cans. Malnutrition rampant among children. Increases in all disease rates because of that malnutrition. Hospitals, schools and colleges closing from lack of funds. And the position of black Americans was even worse. That's where the citizens of this country were in 1932.
And there were still fights in Congress over the funding for the WPA and the PWA. Cost too much. The NRA (no, not THAT NRA) was just another attempt at socialism (actually, it was more akin to theoretical fascism, as opposed to what Mussolini practiced). Social Security was severely limited. The TVA and other reclamation/power projects weren't nearly as extensive as their backers wished; something to do with getting "something" passed, I understand. Even Glass-Steagall was a compromise, with many ideas proposed recently in the Senate also being proposed then, too.
The economic crisis we have to deal with today is no where near as bad as 1932, thankfully. Yet there still was "politics" in the drafting, passing (and sometimes, re-passing) of legislation. Many liberal/progressive bills were watered down to get enough votes; some never made it out of committee. Just as it is today.
If it was that hard to get "progressive" legislation passed in 1932-38, when Republicans held 30 seats or less in the Senate and the House aisle separating Dems from Repubs had to be moved to accomodate the massive Democratic majority; if it was that hard then with a possible revolution hovering on the horizon, why in Heaven's name do you think it's so easy today?
There ARE members of Congress who obviously deserve our scorn; Lincoln, Bayh, the entire Republican caucus; but, unless you have served there and are fully versed on exactly what it takes to get legislation drafted, through the various committees and then introduced on the floor, I would advise a bit less hyper-ventilating and a bit more appreciation of what DOES get through!
Children nowadays, really...

Any substantial reforms for Wall Street and the American financial system will be impossible so long as candidates continue to readily accept bundles of Big Bank donations.

http://sunstateactivist.org/campaigncorner/?p=302