CONGRESS WILL PASS WALL STREET REFORM; OBAMA'S RESUME IS LOOKING BRIGHTER

Washington, N.Y. -- The broadest overhaul of Wall Street financial rules since the Great Depression is well on its way to becoming law today after it cleared a crucial hurdle in Congress.

By a vote of 60 to 39, backers barely cleared a Republican roadblock in the Senate, setting up a final series of votes for 2 p.m. (Final passage looks assured as of post time of this article.) 

"We're on the cusp of victory," Democratic Senator Jack Reed said at a news conference. "This bill is going to be passed."

President Barack Obama, who proposed reforms more than a year ago, has said he wants to sign the measure into law next week.

The House of Representatives has already approved the bill, which tightens regulation across the financial industry in an effort to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2009 financial crises.  You can read more about what just happened by clicking on this link.

The legislation would establish new consumer protections, give regulators greater power to dismantle troubled firms, and limit a range of risky trading activities in a way that would curb bank profits.

With Republicans thinking they will have big gains in the November congressional elections, Democrats are countering by showing voters that they are cracking down on an industry that dragged the economy into its deepest recession in 70 years and that they are really improving the lives of middle class Americans.

Obama has done a good job despite the naysayers, haters and fear mongers

The news today of the passage of the financial reform package got me thinking about what has been accomplished since Obama's inauguration. You have to be living under a rock not to know that Republicans have been the party of "NO" and have been "one note" obstructionists since January 21, 2009. They could care less about good government, and have provided no leadership or desire to pass meaningful legislation. They would even block Gandhi or Mother Theresa from becoming a Supreme Court Justice if Obama thought it was a good idea.

So, here we go. Here is a little primer on what President Obama has accomplished despite the despicable behavior of Conservatives, Tea Partiers and the Republicans.

The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits. Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million children currently uninsured.

On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession. The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals, which is being distributed over the course of several years.

In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research to only a small number of lines. Obama stated that he believed "sound science and moral values...are not inconsistent" and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.

Also in March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets. On March 23, The New York Times noted that "investors reacted ecstatically, with all of the major stock indexes soaring as soon as the markets opened."

Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009, becoming the first Hispanic to be a Supreme Court Justice.

In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment. He signed into law the successful Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", running from July to August 2009, which not only reduced inventories but set off increased production runs at GM, Ford and Toyota, resulting in the rehiring of plenty of our brothers and sisters who were laid-off workers.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for instant economic growth. The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million, while conceding that it was impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.

On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.

Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, on October 8, 2009.

That same day on October 8, 2009, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.  On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.  On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39. On March 21, 2010, the health care bill passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212. Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010 which will positively transform the lives of millions of Americans.

On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009.

In foreign policy, Obama began a gradual withdrawal of troops from Iraq, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, and signed an arms control treaty with Russia.

This is far from a complete list of notable work from the 111th Congress and the Obama White House. Our working class families need to take a hard long look at who is really governing our country and who is working to improve our communities-- and exactly who is just playing obstructionist politics. 

And another thing...

How we vote in the midterm elections will be critical to Obama in his last two years of his first term.  Either we vote to continue to get out of the mess the Republicans created or we succumb once again to their failed ideology.  If we had Wall Street reform sooner, if we has healthcare reform sooner, if we had an energy bill sooner, the jobs would already be here and we would be emerging from this recession we are in.  I believe all these bills will foster an economic climate for the possibility of sustainable long term jobs in the future.

After the Senate vote on Wall Street reform today, Republican talking heads like John Boehner were still siding with big banks by suggesting that the bill should repealed.  Alabama Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby both slammed the vote as well.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell put his foot in his mouth too, saying that Republicans "have their groove back."  Maybe McConnell didn't have time to read the latest Time Magazine Poll released earlier today.  By a 5 percent margin, voters place greater trust in the Democratic Party's ability to preside over an economic recovery, and 43% said they currently plan to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate, edging those who prefer their district's Republican.  Right now, the national GOP approval rating is hovering around 26 percent.  That probably won't get it done.

Why would any right-minded, middle-of-the-road voter think that tax breaks for the rich, stopping unemployment benefits, dismantling Social Security, currying favor with big oil companies like BP and voting "NO" on every bill would improve our economy and create jobs?  We've been down that road before and the scenery sucks.  Take my advice.  Do not look back.  

Commentary by Ove Overmyer.