Republicans have been accurately attacking the Dodd bill for authorizing bailouts of big Wall Street firms and giving them unfair advantages over small competitors. They might want to add that it authorizes Gangster Government -- the channeling of vast sums from the politically unprotected to the politically connected.
Just as drug companies and insurers used Republicans to kill the public option before using Democrats to mandate insurance and subsidize drugs, big banks are using Republicans to kill a bank tax while using Democrats to erect barriers to entry, to institutionalize bailouts, and to restore confidence in Wall Street.
Despite Reid's threat to forge ahead without the GOP, he is at the same time working with them on a compromise behind the scenes. His willingness to wait until next week to move a bill to the floor is a clear sign that Democrats have yet to win over a Republican.
Campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees to President Obama are nearly seven times as much as President Bush received from Enron workers, according to numbers on OpenSecrets.org.
Both parties are courting political risk by trading sordid accusations over a pending financial services regulations bill -- including the risk of overplaying their hands.
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