TIMES ONLINE: Banking industry lobbyists are preparing to do battle, buoyed by a landmark US Supreme Court ruling striking down limits on corporations’ political spending, against the ambitious and agressive plans laid on Thursday by President Obama.
Despite the pointed attacks made by the President on the “army of industry lobbyists from Wall Street”, the Financial Services Roundtable, a body which represents 100 of the largest financial firms, said that Mr Obama’s proposal would do little to protect consumers.
“The proposal will restrict lending, increase risk, decrease stability in the system, and limit our ability to help create jobs,” said Steve Bartlett, chief executive of the roundtable.
Individual bankers by and large kept quiet, preferring to weigh up the best response in private. As they did so, Mr Obama flew to the struggling rust-belt state of Ohio in hope that the attack would re-energise his popularity in middle America.
In Washington the attack on bankers was seen as a “policy pivot” designed to accommodate voters’ populist rage after the Democrats’ loss of Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. “I’ll never stop fighting for you. I’ll take my lumps, too,” Mr Obama told an audience in Elyria, at the start of a day of campaign-style events aimed at reinvigorating the Democrats before the November mid-term elections.
The President has become increasingly strident about what he calls the “fat cats” in the big banks as the American public has reacted with revulsion to big bonuses being handed out in Wall Street. Mr Obama’s political capital is dwindling, however, after the Democrats’ loss on Tuesday of the 60-seat “super-majority” that enables them to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
Yesterday, the Senate was forced to postpone the confirmation of Ben Bernanke for a new term as Federal Reserve chairman after two more Democratic senators said that they would join a revolt against him. >>> James Bone in New York | Saturday, January 23, 2010
