House Democrats Fighting for Americans, Standing up to Trump's #WallStreetFirst Agenda
With his Executive Order, President Trump and Republicans have sent a clear, chilling message to American families: it's #WallStreetFirst. But Leader Pelosi and House Democrats continue to stand up against their radical agenda that threatens jobs, wages, and the retirement security of hard-working families across America.
The Hill – House Dems: Trump wants to put Wall Street first
House Democrats on Monday blasted President Trump's executive orders curtailing financial regulation, arguing that the White House wants to bring the country back to the days leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.
"They want to take us right back to that place, by the person who went out there and campaigned against Wall Street," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a press conference.
"We cannot return to the financial catastrophes that we've had in the past," added Rep. Vicente González (D-Texas).
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Democratic lawmakers accused Trump of going against his campaign promises, since he repeatedly attacked Wall Street while he was running for president.
"Instead of fighting for hard-working families abused by our economy, as he promised in the campaign, the president and his billionaire Cabinet have abandoned Main Street to enable Wall Street's corrosive profiteering of the banks on the back of hard-working Americans," Pelosi said.
Republicans often argue that Dodd-Frank has hurt community banks. Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, refuted that argument, saying that community banks are making more loans than big banks and credit unions have seen their membership expand.
"In Trump's America, Wall Street comes first and Main Street picks up the tab," she said.
The Democratic lawmakers also defended the fiduciary rule, saying it protects the investments of seniors and the members of the middle class.
Roll Call – House Democrats Go to the Mat for Dodd-Frank
…House Democrats are digging in for an extended fight over the president's executive actions, in particular his targeting of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law.
Starting over the weekend and continuing into Monday, House Democrats are defending a statute they say is key to protecting Main Street from Wall Street excesses.
"When you talk about deregulation, we're talking about getting rid of consumer protection," California's Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, said on Monday.
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The memo will target regulations put in place by Dodd-Frank, which Spicer said failed to address the true causes of last decade's financial crisis.
House Democrats, to put it mildly, disagree, and they took a swipe at Trump to make their point.
"The president is undermining the financial security of working families while there is no transparency about how his own businesses would benefit from his new executive order," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Monday.
Pelosi touted the law as a the enacted of the "strongest Wall street consumer financial protections in history." Those sentiments were seconded by Waters at a press event on Monday the Democrats hosted.
"These directives show once and for all that when push comes to shove Donald Trump will always put the interest of his pals on Wall Street over the interest of the American people," Waters said.
Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer also weighed in.
"Not only does this executive order put our financial system, investors, and consumers at risk, but it also injects additional uncertainty into our economy, which is not good for businesses," Hoyer said in a statement.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi vowed Monday to fight what she called President Trump's "massive con" to dismantle the Dodd-Frank financial law.
Pelosi said House Democrats would take their case to the public to try to stop Trump from removing protections designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
"The president has moved to expose hardworking Americans to unfair, deceptive and predatory practices, perpetuating a massive con on those who thought he would stand up for them against the powerful interests," Pelosi told reporters.
Dodd-Frank, which was passed with almost no Republican support in the wake of the financial crisis, toughened capital requirements for financial firms, set up a powerful panel of regulators to watch for threats and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to oversee credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.
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Democrats have promised to defend the 2010 law, one of former President Obama's signature accomplishments.
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On Monday, Pelosi and key Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee held a news conference to blast what they said was Trump's attempt to roll back the law's key provisions.
"What a pack of lies he told," Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, the top Democrat on the committee, said of Trump's campaign rhetoric about being tough on Wall Street.
Waters also suggested that the Dodd-Frank order, as well as Trump's executive action on immigration and other steps, could lead to his impeachment. However, she did not specify why those steps would be an impeachable offense. And at this point, with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, any effort to try to begin impeachment proceedings would be highly unlikely to succeed.
Pelosi said Trump's campaign talk "was just a hoax" on the American people and that his administration "has unleashed a Wall Street-first agenda to pad the pockets of their Wall Street friends."
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) said Monday that Democrats need to act to "stop the greatest bait-and-switch in American political history."
Waters said Democrats on the Financial Services Committee have been willing to make "minor modifications" to the law. But she said they would not allow its key provisions, such as creation of the consumer bureau, to be demolished.
POLITICO – Pelosi, Waters slam Trump for 'Wall Street first' agenda
House Democrats today blasted Republican plans for undoing the 2010 Dodd-Frank law but said they were still willing to revisit financial regulations for small banks and credit unions.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters said President Donald Trump was pursuing a "Wall Street first" agenda, after the administration on Friday released executive orders that opened the door to further deregulation.
"The president has moved to expose hardworking Americans to unfair, deceptive and predatory practices, perpetuating a massive con on those who thought he would stand up for them against powerful interests," Pelosi said at a press conference this morning.
Reps. Brad Sherman, Al Green, Bill Foster and Vicente Gonzalez, who serve on the Financial Services Committee, were also on stage.
Waters said the administration was misleading the public by saying Dodd-Frank was hurting small financial institutions. She criticized the American Bankers Association for being "in control" of community banks. She said small lenders were being held "hostage" by the big banks because they believe they need larger institutions to be their advocates.