Still At It

(Editorial cartoon by Joel Pett / Lexington Herald-Leader (June 3, 2013) and featured at McClatchy DC.  Click on image to enlarge and then please come back.)

Well, the House is up to its usual tricks, this time with a bill guaranteed to make its bankster and 1%  friends happy.  It may have cost our owners a little money, but, hey!, they got what they wanted. 

From Open Secrets:

Banking industry lobbyists helped members of the House Financial Services Committee craft a bill loosening regulators' oversight of various types of trading, with lobbyists from Citibank playing a large role in the process, according to a report in today's New York Times. Seventy-one of the 80 lines in a bill recently approved by the panel were written with the assistance of lobbyists for major banks, said the report, which is based on emails reviewed by the paper's reporters; two paragraphs were copied from the lobbyists nearly word-for-word.

According to Center for Responsive Politics data, in the first quarter of 2013, members of that committee received more than $1.3 million in donations to their campaigns and leadership PACs from the securities and investment industry and commercial banks. ...

Although the New York Times article cites a growing friendliness between the banking industry and congressional Democrats, the money going to the members of the committee this year overwhelmingly tilted towards Republicans. Seventy percent of the $1.3 million went to GOP lawmakers. Republicans control the House, and thus the committee, and it is not unusual to see the majority party pick up more cash from donors, regardless of the topic or committee.   [Emphasis added]

$1.3 million in just three months:  not bad, eh?  Especially since it is designed to save the "donors" billions. 

Oh, and our Dems on that committee weren't too shy about accepting their share.  I'm looking at you, Maxine Waters.

And people wonder why we can't have nice things.