Boehner Compares Wall St. Bill to Killing an Ant with a Nuke
EmailABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: The top Republican in the House of Representatives is under fire from Democrats for comments about the Wall Street reform bill suddenly in jeopardy of getting passed by Congress. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Monday, House Minority Leader John Boehner compared the financial regulatory reform bill to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.” “This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” Boehner said of the bill. “There are faults in our regulatory system, some in terms of transparency, most as a result of ineffective enforcement by the bureaucracy who have no idea what these financial products look like today. That could’ve been fixed, but that’s not what we have here.” Democrats quickly pounced on Boehner’s comments. “An ant, Mr. Boehner?” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in a statement. “It was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression — Americans lost 8 million jobs and $17 trillion in retirement savings and net worth. The irresponsible fiscal policies of George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans were much more than an ant to American workers, their families and small businesses.” “If John Boehner thinks the crisis that cost millions of Americans their jobs was an ‘ant,’ he probably thinks the BP spill is just a drop in the bucket,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “This is coming from the same Republican Party that called America a ‘nation of whiners’ and declared ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ as our economy was collapsing.” “This is about values,” Manley said. “Republicans apologize to BP, meet in secret with Wall Street executives and fight for every special interest that comes knocking on their doors. But when it comes to fighting for the middle class, they’re nowhere to be found. Senate Republicans should say whether they agree with Boehner’s assessment. If they do, it would explain why nearly all of them voted against holding Wall Street accountable.” The Wall Street bill is currently in a tenuous position in the Senate after the death of Sen. Robert Byrd and the opposition of Sen. Scott Brown, both of whom voted for the bill last month. Lawmakers are now poised to go back into conference committee to change a controversial $19 billion bank tax that prompted Brown’s disapproval. Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, issued a statement on Tuesday clarifying the Ohio congressman’s comments. "It's clear Boehner is not minimizing the crisis America faced – he is pointing out that Washington Democrats have produced a bill that will actually kill more jobs and make the situation worse,” Steel said. -Matthew Jaffe
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How do you guys know what to write now that Journo-List is defunct? Sure sounds like the Democrat Party line. Do you just call up DNC headquarters now?
Posted by: lakelevel | June 29, 2010, 4:28 pm 4:28 pm
The GOP doesn’t want any controls on business. Sorry, but business has demonstrated, that they cannot be trusted to police themselves.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | June 29, 2010, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
Usual party line positions. One party screws things up. The other party makes it worse by passing more legislation that is opposed by the old party and the old party gets blamed for causing the problem that was actually caused by the party making the complaint….blah, blah, blah. Fact is, no legislation has ever been made better through revision by the same group of clowns who passed it in the first place. The problem is not how business and financial institutions respond to government intervention, it’s the GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION that causes the problem. If you want to cure the financial issues in America, CREATE JOBS.
Posted by: wantingbalance | June 29, 2010, 6:29 pm 6:29 pm
The proposed bill may be 90% good but there is 10% which will add unnecessary friction to our economy. This is like putting sand into a cars oil and will result in the economies engine seizing up.
Posted by: tillyerkt | June 29, 2010, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
Spoken like a “true blue” supporter of the wealthy oligarchy and corporatocracy that rules our country…”John Boy”. That is wjhy you need to be voted …OUT!
Posted by: CND FOX | June 29, 2010, 9:24 pm 9:24 pm
wantingbalance posted “The problem is not how business and financial institutions respond to government intervention, it’s the GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION that causes the problem.
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Sorry, but our meltdown was mostly caused by the removal of regulations (Glass/Steagal) and the unwillingness to regulate derivatives.
Posted by: Faurtz8 | June 29, 2010, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
“Wantingbalance” knows that they are spreading misinformation about “government intervention” being the problem. All it is is a typical conservative “trick” to demonize the opposition for the very things that your party does. Anyone with a brain and who has paid attention knows of the “defunding of government effort” conservatives have engaged in over the past twenty to twenty five years. Just so they can accuse “government of being pathetic”. Better wake MIDDLE CLASS before there are “none of us left”. The problem has been there has not been enough “sound government rules, regulation and enforcement” to protect consumers – the majority of which is middle class people.
Posted by: CND FOX | June 29, 2010, 10:29 pm 10:29 pm
Faurtz8; And the current reform bill has nothing or nearly nothing in it that addresses Glass Steagal or derivatives. Nothing of substance that I’ve read. Have you?
Posted by: LongT | June 29, 2010, 10:47 pm 10:47 pm
“Anyone with a brain and who has paid attention knows…….” He’s back!
Posted by: LongT | June 29, 2010, 10:50 pm 10:50 pm
LongT posted “Faurtz8; And the current reform bill has nothing or nearly nothing in it that addresses Glass Steagal or derivatives. Nothing of substance that I’ve read. Have you?”
The entire bill? No. But then I wasn’t commenting on the bill; I was commenting on the “Freddie/Fannie caused the meltdown” which is NOT true. I’ll have to reserve my opinion on this bill until I can read it; but if they didn’t address Glass/Steagal or derivatives then I don’t see it stopping further meltdowns.
Posted by: Faurtz8 | June 29, 2010, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
Capitalism is great sure, no one can dispute the wealth it has provided, but it is still a “Mindless Machine” This situation with BP would be the free market correcting itself in that BP,s image is tarnished, the damage is done to the people of the Gulf. Would we have then the free market correct itself without proper regulation after your kids died of a persertive used in food that was poisonous? I’m sure that people would not buy that company’s product after the fact! Capitalism is a “Mindless Machine” that does what it does and should be controlled by the people, not the market controlling us, Profits should not supercede ideals or the will of its citizens it should serve…..Regulations can be removed if needed, and should be applied conversely
Posted by: Voltaire | June 30, 2010, 3:08 am 3:08 am
wantingbalance, what kind of jobs would you want created, more oil drilling jobs? more Wal Mart jobs, im sure that a tax cut for them would help them greatly! only if they had less taxs they would just pass the savings down to a Wal Mart janitor and gas prices would be less than a $1.00 a gallon. I feel that a janitor no matter how wealthy a business is, is still only going paied janitor wages. Why would drilling for more oil reduce the cost of gas? Why would I want do that? Why would my competors want to do that? only so much gas an average person is going to use
Posted by: Voltaire | June 30, 2010, 3:16 am 3:16 am
This is the same guy who helped get health care DEFORM, with his “Defeat the President” attitude, while protecting the pockets of the people who are sucking the country dry. We need problem solvers in there who care about more than the wealthy.
Posted by: parma hts gary | June 30, 2010, 6:50 am 6:50 am
In stories like this, it should be mentioned that John Boehner, the Eddie Haskel of Congress, has received $461,632 from Big Bank PACs and another $88,687 from Big Bank execs according to opensecrets. So of course he’s bleating the line his masters tell him to.
Posted by: The_Mick | June 30, 2010, 7:19 am 7:19 am
Faurtz; Well, I haven’t read it either, but from what I have read in the news it doesn’t address it. As for Fannie/Freddie, they may have not have started the mortgage meltdown, but like a sinking boat, they sure don’t help with any “bailing”. Their bailout costs may top $1 Trillion.
Posted by: LongT | June 30, 2010, 7:47 am 7:47 am
I don’t like Boehner. He’s a jerk. Maybe the new tan tax will keep him out of the salon.
Posted by: LongT | June 30, 2010, 7:49 am 7:49 am
Boehner actually considers the financial disaster in the same level as an ant hill? Talk about having the guts to open his mouth and remove all doubt of his intelligence. No doubt he is being paid by the financial leaders to say these foolish things. Time for this one to be voted out.
Posted by: Wayne | June 30, 2010, 8:02 am 8:02 am
Once again, Republicans prove that they support and represent big business over what’s best for the American people. What’s amazing is that they can be so brazen about it yet middle and lower class Republicans still vote for them…
Posted by: DaveM | June 30, 2010, 8:14 am 8:14 am
Sure, lets denegrade Rep Boehner for stating an opinion, but let’s not even cover the video of Rep Pete Stark actually ridiculing his constituents for over 9 minutes!! —– Balanced coverage? — Never!!!
Posted by: TheLoyalOpposition | June 30, 2010, 9:54 am 9:54 am
In July 2009, an international panel rated the world banking systems as to their “soundness”. The US were 40th, Canada 1st. Canada’s banks and investment firms are WAY more regulated than the US, still make BILLIONS in profits year after year, and none defaulted or had to be bailed out as the financial meltdown struck the world. So, what about regulations being the problem???
Posted by: treblig56 | June 30, 2010, 12:02 pm 12:02 pm