Like health care reform and every other piece of major legislation during the Obama years, there is some change in the bill the Senate passed, but probably not nearly enough to do much good or prevent another economic collapse. The effort was as bipartisan as could be expected, with Republicans Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Chuck Grassley voting with the Democratic bloc, even as others in their party worked to blunt the impact by blocking voting on several key points.
Democrats Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold voted against the bill, citing its failure to close gaping loopholes, restore safeguards and insert “too big to fail” provisions, all of which are principled liberal stances and therefore left them hopelessly outflanked by most of the Senate.
The Christian Science Monitor delves into the process that will codify the new regulations here, Talking Points Memo offers its criticism here, and David Frum contends whatever that despite the rhetoric around reform, bank bailouts can and will continue to happen here.
