holy CRAP. this is a prime example of the cure being worse than the disease. who decides what is "too big"? there is also a tax in this bill on the largest companies to fund a future "bailouts" -- which assumes that we will have a crisis of this magnitude every few years. since larger companies are by definition more successful, why penalize them? and who has faith that the geniuses in congress are to be trusted with this sort of awesome power? have we forgotten that the first dominoes to fall in the current crisis were caused by this very committee when they turned fannie and freddie into fair housing programs?
never let a good crisis go to waste, as rahm emanuel said.
House Financial Services Committee OKs powers to break up large firms
A key House panel voted on Wednesday to give the federal government broad new powers that could be used to break up large financial firms before they fail.
The House Financial Services Committee voted 38-29 to support an amendment sponsored by Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) that drew strong objections from Republicans and wariness from some centrist Democrats.
Kanjorski said his amendment to the sweeping financial overhaul legislation was inspired by a belief that lawmakers would not vote for future emergency bailout funds like they did a year ago with the $700 billion bailout package.
“We’ve gone to the edge. We’ve almost seen a world meltdown. What I’m saying is before we get back into those circumstances, we’re going to cure that,” Kanjorski said.
Democrats Reps. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Dan Maffei (N.Y.) and Melissa Bean (Ill.) joined all Republicans in opposition to the amendment.
The Obama administration and congressional lawmakers have been wrestling with how to end government bailouts and the problem of firms that are “too big to fail.” But Kanjorski’s measure goes a step further than lawmakers and President Barack Obama had originally proposed.
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