Don't blame Clinton for this financial mess

[LiberalEsto]

It's too cute how the repukes are scrambling to heap all the blame for the current financial disasters on former President Bill Clinton. As usual.

It's so convenient to scapegoat Clinton, even though the repukes have held the White house for nearly 8 years, and controlled Congress from 1994 until 2006. By my count, that's 12 years.

Some republican slicksters are pointing to the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 as "proof" that the economic disasters our nation currently faces are somehow attributable to Clinton. This bill repealed a long-standing law, enacted in 1933, that prohibited bank holding companies from owning other financial institutions.

This bill was introduced in both houses of Congress by Republicans. All three main sponsors -- Gramm, Leach, and Bliley, are Republicans. It passed by a veto-proof majority, so even if he had wanted to, Clinton could not have rejected it.

Sen. Phil Gramm, who recently called us a "nation of whiners" because of our concerns about the faltering economy, was one of the primary sponsors of this bill, which is also called the Financial Modernization Act of 1999.

According to Wikipedia:

"The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and included banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation. Some provisions such as Regulation Q that allowed the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates in savings accounts were repealed by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980.

Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999 by a bipartisan, conference committee version of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act signed by President Bill Clinton."


More Wikipedia:

"The bills were introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (R-TX) and in the House of Representatives by James Leach (R-IA). The bills were passed by a 54-44 vote along party lines with Republican support in the Senate<1> and by a 343-86 vote in the House of Representatives."

"Democrats agreed to support the bill only after Republicans agreed to strengthen provisions of the Community Reinvestment Act and address certain privacy concerns. The final bipartisan bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15. Without forcing a veto vote, this bipartisan, veto proof legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act

[jojo54]

1. Clinton didn't remove the regulations on banks and financial institutions.

Clinton didn't remove the taxes paid by big corporations when they shipped jobs overseas.

Clinton didn't .......o.k. I'm getting too worked up here. Gotta stop.

[Tarc]

2. Blaming Clinton is the trendy thing to do when people have nowhere else to hide

It is sad that such activity is condoned within the DU as well.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Hey! He signed that piece of shit!

C'mon, giving the guy a complete pass is just as bad for blaming him for buying the nails for the cross, like the repukes do.

[trotsky]

4. Exactly.

Sadly, the Dems can't plead innocence on this one. They were able to get some things put into the Gramm bill but didn't fight it. But my dearly missed Senator Paul Wellstone still voted against it, thankfully.

[Captain Hilts]

5. They forget Conservative Dems did not support him from Day One and he had an R congress for 6 yrs.nt

[orwell]

6. Clinton deserves some blame.

Clinton, Rubin and Summers were on board from the beginning.

Some Dems, while not as ideologically bound as the Cons, were willing to deregulate to serve the corporate masters. It must be remembered that by the end of the 90's under Bill Clinton, many Dems were morphing into something close to the DLC vision. Both due to Clinton's economic success and the desire to continue to encourage home ownership especially among their lower income groups, the Dems cut a deal with the devil. The side benefit was the continued flow of waterfalls of financial services lobbying money into Dem campaign coffers.

You can't change history. What the McCain camp and their toadying press is trying to do is distract people from the real problems - the taint of campaign finance and the corporate domination of the political process both in Washington and in the media.

The marriage between the Dems and the Corpo-Fascists is more of a shotgun wedding. The marriage of the Cons and the Corpo-Fascists is a match made in heaven.

[Better Believe It]

7. Don't Let Clinton And The 90 Democratic/Republican Senators Off The Hook!

They voted for it. Clinton signed it.

No one held a gun to their heads.

[NNN0LHI]

8. We have had a Rethug in the White House for 20 of the last 28 years

Never forget that.

Don

[bobthedrummer]

9. "INCONVENIENT TRUTHS ABOUT THE NEW DEMOCRATS, THE THIRD WAY, DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, ETC"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address389x2973191

[dkofos]

10. I don't. I blame the TRAITOR PHIL GRAMM!!