You're wrong; it wasn't a lack of regulation it was a lack of enforcement. I assume your 2009 line was a shot at the evil Republicans who absolutely everyone with a brain knows are in the pocket of Wall Street. BULLSHIT; doesn't matter who is in the white house we end up with an ex Goldman Sachs officer or some other Wall Street firm officer in effect policing themselves. Please don't tell me you really think Obama/Dodd/Frank put the hammer down on Wall Street. Wall street 'helped' write the bill. And the Slick Master wasn't just shooting down Glass-Steagall while he was in office. Bill C joined the American Banking Association in 2010 in arguing favor of things that would have been against major provisions of the act. Damn, Bill didn't seem to learn anything from the financial meltdown at all. I wonder how many 'contributions' that garnered him. Anything that is to "big to fail" needs to be divided up. And right now all of the new 'regulations' your so proud of don't address that at all. We are still at risk.
If a genie granted me three wishes, the second one would be to outlaw lobbyists from Congress and State Legislatures. There is no provision in the Constitution for lobbyists. It is pure special interest influence peddling, I don't care what the cause is. In the case of Big Banking or Big Oil it is pure bribery through campaign contributions or promises of future employment after Congress. The sorry fact is that Congress has come to put lobbyists ahead of their own constituents and the best interests of the United States. Let the special interests lobby the people directly and let the voters tell our representatives what we want them to do.
Nice thought Red and we need to find a way to limit lobbying. Unfortunately it is protected in the constitution (see attached http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying). However just because it is protected doesn't mean it can't be limited. It should be. BTW yes corporate interests have huge lobbying efforts but so do unions and other liberal groups. You are correct and right that Congress now puts special interests ahead of their constituents and country.
100% agree Red. I would add that in addition, and in some ways more insidious, is our representatives and senators after they are 'defeated' and former white house staff becoming lobbyists selling knowledge and access to the system. And this is truly bipartisan in that prominent X-Dems team up with prominent X-Repubs to create lobby firms that can milk the tits on both sides of the cow. And in spite of what Obama said his administration is no different - they will take a back seat to no one when it comes to sucking at the public tit. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict some X-Obama administration members will become lobbyist/consultants helping businesses find loop hole relief from Obamacare. And the bribery is not just big banks and big oil buying our government, it's big labor (worker unions, teacher unions, and federal worker unions), big agriculture, big pharmaceutical (if you think Obamacare is going to damage these guys raise your stupid right hand), big defense contractors, big communications and absolutely everyone else that can benefit from a new law or regulation OR can benefit from laws not being changed. If the Colombian drug lords had joined together and hired a prominent lobby firm pot it would have been legal long ago. Washington DC government is for sale more than Louisiana government ever was. The Feds came after corrupt shit here; the guys in Washington pass laws to make their shit legal. And Red, I don't want to know what your first wish was.
As I noted earlier lobbying is provided for in the constitution. Klute your point about ex congress people and their aides going from one trough to the other is dead on. Unfortunately congress would have to pass the laws that cuts their ties to the teat. Never happen.
I guess you can say if Able murders Cain and efficiently disposes of all of the evidence then the crime is protected by the constitution. But we know it really isn't supposed to be. Same thing about hired gun lobbyists who knowingly push bad laws and regulations for money. Except the murderer is more moral.
Of course there is provision for it. It is the first amendment. People can get together, pool resources, and deliver a message. If you don't like the message then vpte for the guy that doesn't involve himself with that cartel, but don't push to destroy liberty because you don't like the side effects.
I'm not complaining about the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. But there is nothing in the Constitution that provides for elite special interest groups to bribe Congress with gifts, contributions, and promises of future jobs. There is nothing in the First Amendment that allows for lobbyists to have special access to Congress in their Washington offices and on the floor of Congress that are not provided to private citizens. There is nothing in the Constitution that permits Congress to peddle influence and put special interests above the wishes of their constituency. Let the special interests lobby the Citizens directly and let us tell our representatives what to do. The NRA is not a voter. The Sierra Club is not a voter. The NAACP and the AFLCIO are not voters and are not the constituents of our representatives.
I'd like to have a law that makes it mandatory for elected officials and law enforcement to serve the maximum sentence for breaking the laws. That might cut down on some crooked cops and politicians. All that do as We say not as we do is crap.
get your head out of your ass. you honestly want to argue that the principles of our financial system were sound prior to the economic collapse, it was only a lack of regulatory enforcement that caused the financial crisis? really? Dodd-Frank was never meant to "put the hammer down" on Wall Street; it was constructed to prevent a similar crisis from happening again and, thus far, it has been successful at doing so.
