Wall Street Reform

Kelly Ayotte Goes Full Washington

Kelly Ayotte is launching her reelection campaign as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country. Granite Staters don’t trust Ayotte to put them first ahead of the special interests bankrolling her campaign, and it’s easy to see why after five years in D.C. Ayotte’s resume reads like a who’s who of out-of-touch Republican positions:

• Ayotte supports raising the retirement age and cutting Social Security benefits.

• Ayotte voted to roll back Wall Street reforms, while her largest donors are Wall Street execs.

• Ayotte opposes equal pay measures and voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act.

• Ayotte voted to voucherize Medicare in the Ryan Budget.

• Ayotte is anti-choice and would overturn Roe v. Wade.

• Ayotte voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

• Ayotte would allow employers to make health care decisions for female employees by supporting the Blunt Amendment and Hobby Lobby decision.

• Ayotte opposes marriage equality and same-sex adoption.

• Ayotte voted against allowing people to refinance their college loan debt.

It’s no wonder that Republicans are already vowing to shatter previous New Hampshire spending and groups like Karl Rove’s are jumping into the race to prop up Kelly Ayotte. Special interests are doing everything they can to keep Ayotte in D.C. because she’s a rubber stamp for their priorities.

Seven Things You Should Know About Tea Party Radical David Brat

Here's what you should know about David Brat, the Tea Party radical who blindsided House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) in a primary challenge on Tuesday: He is a right-wing candidate who opposes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, supports radically reshaping our heath care system, and event wants to scale back the regulatory powers of the FDA. Don't take our word for it? See the research below.

1. Brat supported radically altering the American health care system.

Brat Supported Radically Altering The American Health Care System, Said “‘We Need To Also Scrap Employer-Based Health Insurance.” According to Culpeper Star-Exponent "Of course, the first question I asked him was what should be done with Obamacare? ‘It needs to be scrapped,’ he replied without hesitation. ‘Completely.’ So I asked him what should take Obamacare's place, and to understand his answer, you have to know some history… When I asked him what should take Obamacare's place, his answer was, ‘We need to also scrap employer-based health insurance, and give those incentives to individuals to carry their own portable health insurance.’ He went on to say, ‘If we did that, the issue of pre-existing conditions largely goes away.’" [Culpeper Star-Exponent, 3/31/14]

2. Brat called bankers “the solution, not the problem” in regards to the financial crisis.

Brat On The Financial Crisis: ‘Bankers Are The Solution, Not The Problem,’ According to The News & Advance “David Brat says that’s the state of today’s economy, and says everything we know about what is being termed a recession is wrong… The global economy is overleveraged. Ultimately, he said, pointing to the European debt crisis, the country’s economy is headed for disaster if changes aren’t quickly made. And the answer, he said, is not in economics, but ethics. ‘Bankers are the solution, not the problem,’ he said, adding, ‘[Washington] D.C. knows this.’" [The News & Advance, 1/25/13]

3. Brat is radical on immigration.

Brat Opposed Any Kind Of Immigration Reform; Ran To The Right On Eric Cantor On Border Security. According to Watchdog.org, "Cantor, in Brat’s view, is flunking badly on border security. Indeed, the congressman even applauded President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address outlining a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. On Friday, Cantor said on the House floor that ‘immigration reform could be an economic boon to this country.’ Brat is having none of it. He calls the imminent GOP cave-in on immigration an exercise in ‘crony capitalism.’" [Watchdog.org, 2/6/14]

• Brat: “A Change In Immigration Policy Means Amnesty.” According to Watchdog.org "‘At every turn, the GOP establishment is favoring the elites,’ Brat declares. ‘A change in immigration policy means amnesty.’" [Watchdog.org, 2/6/14]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Wall Street Reform

Romney Wanted To Repeal Wall Street Regulations – Has Not Been Specific On What Would Replace It

Romney’s Financial Regulation Plan Was To Have “Something” Replace Dodd-Frank After It’s Repealed. According to The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, “On financial regulation, Romney would ‘repeal Dodd-Frank and replace with streamlined, modern regulatory framework.’ That is literally his entire plan. Three years after a homegrown financial crisis wrecked the global economy, the likely Republican nominee for president would repeal the new regulatory architecture and replace it with … something.” [The Washington Post, Ezra Klein, 8/6/12] Romney Adviser Lanhee Chen Said Romney Would Get Rid Of The Dodd-Frank Law And Would Seek To Replace The Law’s Volcker Rule. According to CBS News, “In talking about financial regulations, Chen reasserted Romney’s desire to get rid of the Dodd-Frank law, and disputed the assertion that repealing the law would lead to ‘a dog-eat-dog kind of situation where there’s absolutely no regulation.’ ‘Governor Romney has made clear that we do need some regulation of derivatives trading, that we do need to have some kind of consumer protections in place, that we do need to look seriously at things we can do to ensure that the financial services industry is regulated in a reasonable way,’ Chen said. ‘But Dodd-Frank is really not the answer. And so I think we have to resist the temptation to caricature what a post-Dodd-Frank world looks like.’ He also said Romney would seek to replace the Volcker rule, one part of Dodd-Frank that restricts the ability of banks to make certain kinds of speculative investments that do not benefit their customers.” [CBS News, 6/1/12]

WSJ: Wall Street, Washington And Gingrich

On January 13, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Newt Gingrich and his consulting companies helped financial-services giant Credit Suisse Group gather exclusive Washington information and analysis, showing that the Republican presidential candidate benefited from a practice that has come under fire from lawmakers. This "political intelligence" business—while legal—also risks muddying the campaign argument by the former House speaker that he has been a Washington outsider since he left Congress in 1999.

iWatch News: K Street, Wall Street line up behind Sen. Scott Brown in his race against Elizabeth Warren

On December 2, 2011, iWatch News reported:

Financial service lobbyists and other K Street advocates have for weeks been working hard to help the freshman senator win his high-stakes battle for re-election against Elizabeth Warren, a liberal Harvard law professor. Warren is anathema for many finance-sector lobbyists and Wall Street leaders who abhor the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau— a centerpiece of the financial services overhaul—of which Warren was the intellectual architect.

Dean Heller's Wall Street Doublespeak

In a blatant attempt to hide his record of standing up for Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, Senator Dean Heller went on KLAS-TV8 to lament how “there's no shame on Wall Street.”  (Video here)  The fact is, Heller voted repeatedly to protect taxpayer-funded bonuses to Wall Street executives while filling his campaign coffers with their money. “Did Dean Heller feel any shame as he voted to hand taxpayer money to Wall Street CEOs?  Did he feel any shame when he gladly cashed their contribution checks?  Nevadans deserve better than Dean Heller’s Wall Street doublespeak,” said Matt Thornton, spokesman for American Bridge 21st Century.