It appears that if Congress doesn’t agree to a government funding bill by the 11:59 p.m. Thursday deadline, there will be another government shutdown.
Over the weekend, Congress approved what some Democrats are calling the “Wall Street Giveaway” that inherently protects big banks from another financial crisis. President Obama claimed that the deal would be better than what the Democrats would see from a Senate under Republican control.
Even Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who in the past has been criticized for a close relationship with Wall Street, spoke out against the measure placed into the $1.1 trillion bill that “provides taxpayer subsidies to risky financial derivatives by allowing banks to trade them from subsidiaries insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.”
Lobbyists for Citigroup composed the measure that was placed into the funding package .
“I rebuke the slick and secretive ways that this has been done,” Booker said.
According to Booker, “armies of high paid lobbyists” with “very connected interests” are putting the nation at risk of another financial crisis similar to 2008. He spoke out in defense of those who can’t afford the expensive lobbyists to protect their interest or make large donations to candidates and elected officials.
“I’m outraged,” he said. “I am frustrated that we are not on the floor debating this and instead are having this put into a bill that everyone says must pass.”
Booker, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), spoke out against the provision on the Senate floor.
“The House of Representatives is about to show us the worst of government for the rich and powerful,” said Warren, who has built her reputation on opposing Wall Street, and whose work previous to Congress led to the conception and establishment of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
