The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
The President commends those in Congress who brought Wall Street Reform within a few steps of the finish line.
When the President began pushing for tough reforms to the way Wall Street does business in the months after he came into office, the grip that the biggest banks in the world have held over Congress in past years left many skeptical about their prospects. Today, though, Senate Leader Harry Reid announced that the final vote in the Senate would come this week, clearing the way for the bill to be sent to the President’s desk.
As it happened, the President was meeting with Senate Democratic Leaders just this morning, and before announcing the nomination of his new OMB Director, the President took a moment to commend those Senators who have withstood the army of lobbyists working against this bill to get it to just steps from the finish line:
Before I begin, I just want to note a breakthrough that we’ve had on our efforts to pass the most comprehensive reform of Wall Street since the Great Depression. Three Republican senators have put politics and partisanship aside to support this reform, and I'm grateful for their decision, as well as all the Democrats who’ve worked so hard to make this reform a reality -- particularly Chairman Dodd and Chairman Barney Frank.
What members of both parties realize is that we can’t allow a financial crisis like this one that we just went through to happen again. This reform will prevent that from happening. It will prevent a financial crisis like this from happening again by protecting consumers against the unfair practices of credit card companies and mortgage lenders. It will ensure that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes. And it will end an era of irresponsibility that led to the loss of eight million jobs and trillions of dollars of wealth. This reform is good for families; it’s good for businesses; it’s good for the entire economy. And I urge the Senate to act quickly so that I can sign it into law next week.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with the Senate Democratic Leadership Team in the Roosevelt Room of the White House to discuss legislative priorities before the August recess, July 13, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
