This isn't about making the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more accountable. It's about holding the president's nominee hostage until Republicans can deliver a more business-friendly regulator to their deep-pocketed corporate backers.
The agency is charged with protecting consumers from rapacious credit card companies, mortgage lenders, payday loan firms and other businesses that aren't always known for their consumer-friendly ways.
Creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was fought every step of the way by banks and other financial services firms, which argued that a new industry overseer was unnecessary, despite the fact that unscrupulous lending practices drove the global economy to the brink of ruin and fostered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
"Most of us wage earners are paying 39.6 percent in taxes and add in another 12 percent in New York state and city taxes and we're paying 50 percent of our income in taxes." Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase
As Atrios points out, the top tax rate is 35 percent, not 39 percent. Doy. And this guy is the CEO of a bank that works with numbers and percentages? Jagoff.
Also, if he's literally paying 35 percent — the full marginal tax rate — he's either a big fat idiot, or he should fire his accountants for gross incompetence because after massive deductions and loopholes, he should really be paying a much lower effective tax rate. Warren Buffett's effective 2010 tax rate, for example, was 17.4 percent. Nowhere near 35.
Adding… WAAHHHHH! I'm gazillionaire Jamie Dimon. WAAAHHHH!
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The votes are now in, and the city of Los Angeles, in a non-binding resolution, has weighed in (my emphasis:
In a discussion about money in politics, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday that corporations are not people and not entitled to the same constitutional protections.
If supported by the mayor, the city would be on record in support of federal legislation that would ensure corporations are not entitled to the same rights as people, especially when it comes to spending money to influence elections. It also proposed language for a constitutional amendment declaring that money is not a form of speech and affirming the right of the federal government to regulate corporations. ...
"Corporations have taken over our society. They are deciding what we eat, how people educate their children and whether or not we have health care," said Sylvia Moore, with the group Move to Amend, which has the broad mission of opposing laws they say prevent the American people from governing themselves. ... The resolution cites Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black's 1938 opinion on the subject: "I do not believe the word "person' in the Fourteenth Amendment includes corporations."
Non-binding, yes, but not without force. As I wrote earlier, "In a popular revolt, grassroots movements count." So does publicity
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If the flaming tap water doesn't get you or the earthquakes aren't enough, maybe states can start paying more attention to the water pollution problem now that the EPA is speaking out. It's good to see the EPA confirm what many have been saying for a long time.
The EPA's found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath a Wyoming community where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals.
Health officials advised them not to drink their water after the EPA found hydrocarbons in their wells.
The EPA announcement has major implications for the vast increase in gas drilling in the U.S. in recent years. Fracking has played a large role in opening up many reserves
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Great report by Think Progress. Click through to see the list of 30 corporate giants who spend more on lobbying than they pay in taxes.
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Your Galtian Overlords at work:
The trustee overseeing MF Global's liquidation estimates the amount at $1.2 billion. Mr. Corzine will say in his testimony that he had little to do with the mechanics of moving customer cash and collateral and that he was "stunned" when he learned on Oct. 30 that the money was missing."I simply do not know where the money is," he will say, noting that "there were an extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global's last few days."
Isn't that pretty much his only responsibility as CEO of MF Global- to know where the money is?
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What Jim Hightower used to say about Dubya needs to be said now about Rick Perry: "If ignorance ever reaches $40 a barrel, I want the drilling rights on his head."
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President Obama: ....All right, with that, I'm going to take a couple of questions. Ben.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. It's a very busy time. If I may, I'd like to ask you about two other, uh, quickly, two other important issues in the news. Republican candidates have, um, taken aim at your approach to foreign policy, particularly the Middle East and Israel, and accused you, uh, of appeasement. I wanted to get your reaction to that. And also, I'm wondering if you personally intervened in any way in halting the sale of the morning after, uh, pill to those under seventeen, and whether you think, uh, politics trumps science in this case.
President Obama: Uh, ask Osama bin Laden and the twenty-two out of thirty top al Qaeda leaders who've been taken off the field, uh, whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that....
House Republicans on Thursday linked the payroll tax cut extension to approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, creating a package President Obama has already vowed to veto. The veto threat pushed the GOP to link the two, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said: "The president's veto threat did more than anything to ensure passage of the bill. It stirs up the competitive nature."
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A new Gallup poll finds that Americans consider a $150,000 annual income to be "rich." The survey asked Americans to name income levels they consider to be rich.
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Wonkette: Why is Elizabeth Warren doing so well in the polls when Karl Rove told everyone to hate her?
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce to host RNC holiday party.
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Newt Gingrich needs twice as many bathrooms as everyone else
Here is some particularly gross gossip unearthed by the Smoking Gun that somehow met the "news" qualification at the Washington Post: according to this rider from a 2010 speaking engagement in Missouri, Newt Gingrich's lengthy demands include two bathrooms in his hotel room, because he is just that full of shit. But all things considered, this is the least disgusting thing we have learned about Newt Gingrich so far in history. A quick six-second search is guaranteed to turn up something even worse… let's see, oh here we go, apparently Newt Gingrich is breaking the law now by announcing he wants John Bolton to be his Secretary of State? READ MORE »
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