[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 108 (Wednesday, July 21, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6040-S6041]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, later this morning, the President of 
the United States will sign a financial regulation bill that was sold 
to the American people as a way of reining in Wall Street. Anyone who 
believes that did not read beyond the cover sheet because if they did, 
they would discover instead a far-reaching government intrusion that 
was endorsed by Wall Street and opposed by Main Street. Citibank thinks 
it is great. Your local florist thinks it will undermine their 
business. When you cut through all the talking points about what 
financial regulation will do, the practical, real-world effect of this 
bill in the near term will be job loss. That is the real story.
  For more than a year and a half, the President and his Democratic 
allies on Capitol Hill have pushed an antibusiness, antijobs agenda on 
the American people in the form of one massive government intrusion 
after another. And then they celebrate. Well, Americans are not 
celebrating. Three million of them have lost their jobs since the 
Democrats launched their stimulus. The folks who lost those jobs 
certainly are not celebrating. Small business owners are already being 
hammered by the health care bill. They are not celebrating. And the 
people who thought this Wall Street bill was supposed to rein in Wall 
Street? Well, they are not celebrating either. They are upset, and 
rightly so.
  As I stand here this morning, millions of Americans are struggling to 
find jobs. Yet all they see in Washington is Democrats passing massive 
bills that at their core seem to have one thing in common: more job 
loss. It is almost as if it is a prerequisite for any Democratic 
legislation--if it leads to more job loss, they will pass it. Americans 
are tired of this kind of ``reform.'' Job-stifling taxes, regulations, 
government intrusion--these appear to be the three pillars of every 
Democratic legislative effort. They are also the three things lawmakers 
can do that are guaranteed to kill more jobs.
  That is why it should not be a surprise to anyone that unemployment 
has been scraping double digits since Democrats started ramming these 
so-called reform bills through Congress.
  As a result of the health care bill, small businesses, student loan 
centers, tanning salons, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, and 
major American employers have all either laid off employees or are 
trying to figure out how not to. Just this week, we read a report that 
during the process of the auto bailout, this administration decided to 
shut down auto dealers, without cause, effectively costing thousands of 
Americans their jobs.
  And now a financial regulatory bill that does nothing to reform the 
government-sponsored enterprises that many people believe to have been 
at the root of the financial crisis this bill grew out of, that was 
meant to rein in Wall Street but now is supported by some of Wall 
Street's biggest banks, and that is meant to help the economy but which 
is expected to stifle growth and kill more jobs.
  The American people are connecting the dots. They do not think this 
bill will solve the problems in the financial sector any more than they 
think the health care bill will lead to lower costs or better care, any 
more than the stimulus lowered unemployment.
  Then there are all the unintended consequences of these bills. Just 
yesterday, we learned that the financial regulatory bill--a bill that 
was supposed to put an end to the notion that some institutions are too 
big to fail--may now have created a new set of institutions that are 
too big to fail. It was reported yesterday that some of the economists 
and experts who have studied this bill are worried it could leave 
taxpayers on the hook in the event a new derivatives clearinghouse 
takes on too much risk.
  So a bill that was originally meant to prevent a situation such as 
the one we faced in November of 2008 that was meant to prevent bailouts 
will add to the list of institutions that are counting on getting 
bailed out.
  That is on top of all the new regulations businesses are going to 
have to deal with as a result of this bill.

[[Page S6041]]

  All told, this bill would impose 533 new regulations on individuals 
and small businesses--regulations that will inevitably lead to the kind 
of confusion and uncertainty that will make it even harder for 
struggling businesses to dig themselves out of the recession.
  It is just this kind of uncertainty that will continue to deter 
lending and freeze credit as lenders wait to see how they will be 
affected by the new regulations. And it is just this kind of 
uncertainty that businesses cite time and again as one of the greatest 
challenges to our economic recovery.
  The White House will declare this bill a victory. But for millions of 
Americans struggling to find work, for millions of small business 
owners bracing themselves for all the new regulations they will have to 
deal with, or ordinary Americans who wanted to see an end to the 
bailouts, this bill is no victory. When out-of-work Americans see 
Democrats celebrating today, what they will see are lawmakers who have 
completely and totally lost touch and who have lost the trust of the 
American people.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.

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