From AP News…

House Republicans worked to undo former President Barack Obama’s law overhauling the nation’s financial rules, arguing that it is undermining economic growth. Democrats countered that the GOP effort risked a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that pushed the economy to the brink of collapse.

The Financial Services Committee’s effort got off to a slow start Tuesday as Democrats insisted that much of the 600-page replacement bill be read aloud before the committee even considered amendments. The marathon session had been expected to last through the night, but the committees leaders agreed instead to hold the first votes Wednesday morning in what will now be at least a two-day affair.

5th Doctor, Peter Davison, annoyed…

Raise your hands if you remember why the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act was passed in the first place?

The financial crisis of 2007–2010 led to widespread calls for changes in the regulatory system.^[10] In June 2009, President Obama introduced a proposal for a “sweeping overhaul of the United States financial regulatory system, a transformation on a scale not seen since the reforms that followed the Great Depression”.^[11]

As the finalized bill emerged from conference, President Obama said that it included 90 percent of the reforms he had proposed.^[12] Major components of Obama’s original proposal, listed by the order in which they appear in the “A New Foundation” outline,^[11] include:

1. The consolidation of regulatory agencies, elimination of the national thrift charter, and new oversight council to evaluate systemic risk;
2. Comprehensive regulation of financial markets, including increased transparency of derivatives (bringing them onto exchanges);
3. Consumer protection reforms including a new consumer protection agency and uniform standards for “plain vanilla” products as well as strengthened investor protection;
4. Tools for financial crises, including a “resolution regime” complementing the existing Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) authority to allow for orderly winding down of bankrupt firms, and including a proposal that the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) receive authorization from the Treasury for extensions of credit in “unusual or exigent circumstances”;
5. Various measures aimed at increasing international standards and cooperation including proposals related to improved accounting and tightened regulation of credit rating agencies.

At President Obama’s request, Congress later added the Volcker Rule to this proposal in January 2010.^[13]

Of course the GOP wants to undo this act. For the obscenely wealthy assholes they represent, 2007-2010 wasn’t a financial crisis at all. They made fucking bank.

And they want to do it again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

They want to keep doing it until there are only two classes in the world: one super-elite group of billionaires, consisting of less than 1% of the population, and everybody else… poor and homeless, with net worth in the negatives.

And I love (as in: hate) how they’re trying to excuse it, too:

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Republican chairman of the committee, said consumers and the economy were being hurt by the restrictions.

“Regrettably, thanks to Dodd-Frank, too many garages in our nation are full of old cars instead of new startup small business,” Hensarling said. “It’s time for the bailouts to end. It’s time to help small businesses on Main Street.”

Oh what utter bullshit. You couldn’t care less about “Main Street” if you tried…