Something that almost never happens: A bill is getting TOUGHER as it goes through conference

[scheming daemons]

The polar opposite of "watered-down".


And it is scaring the bejeesus out of Wall Streeters.


And that's a very good thing.


http://www.politico.com/morningmoney/

[scheming daemons]

1. No comments from the "Where's the change I can believe in?" crowd? ... typical...

..

[no limit]

4. I guess you forgot everything bad Bush did the second he did something good

amirite?

[Winterblues]

6. When it gets signed into Law is when you should start your bragging.

The final Bill has not been voted on, a lot can happen.

[Fumesucker]

2. You provided no details and I refuse to click on Politico.. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

3. If past experience is a guide, then the bill is being watered-down. Politico is not trustworthy.

[scheming daemons]

7. Wall Street insiders are starting to panic.... that's the sign of how the bill is going

...not who reports it.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. I will be very interested to see how this all shakes out.

Treasury and the White House have been lobbying hard against Lincoln's derivatives amendment. I saw a Poltico guy on Morning Joe last week say that no Senator or Congressman wanted to kill off that amendment publicly in conference because it is clearly one of the only things with real teeth in the whole thing. He went on to state that the White House had agreed to be the bad guy who would kill it in conference.

I completely understand the skepticism about Politico, that just adds to my interest whether they will be correct in that prediction or not.

Aside from that, the Merkely-Levin stuff sounds good. If it makes it in, it will prove that stuff can be inserted in conferencing - I thought we debated that point to death during HCR, whether it could or couldn't happen. I thought during HCR it was stated that any new stuff would require a new votes, but there was some mechanism that could bypass that, forget what it was called, and that it could possibly go for just a straight up or down final pass or no pass.

I have to say that I learned more than I ever wanted to know about procedure during HCR and have managed to forget most of it. I was so disheartened by HCR that I didn't follow Finance reform too much because I just made the assumption we would get another watered down "reform" bill that suited the Wall Street cronies without too much feather ruffling. I would love to be pleasantly surprised on this one.

Keeping fingers crossed.

[laughingliberal]

8. If they use the Merkley-Levin model and pass it AND don't water down Lincoln's derivative's reform

the bill will, actually, have some redeeming value.