A massive bill overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system apparently will be passed this week and sent to President Barack Obama. It has been described as the most thorough-going reform of banking and financial institutions since the Great Depression.
The measure came out of the conference committee on party-line votes. Sixty votes will be required in the Senate to avoid a filibuster and possible defeat.
President Obama said the 60 votes were there, as he left for Toronto, Canada for an economic summit of the Group of 20. A spokesman said the regulatory measure would make the United States the leader in financial reform and said the president would urge other nations to take similar measures to rein in risky speculation and re-quire financial institutions to hold more capital reserves.
But most of the Republican comment to date has been negative and at least one crossover vote will be needed to pass the bill.
As Senate Republicans were willing to let unemployment benefits for more than 1,000,000 American workers and their families expire last week, it seems altogether possible that they will refuse to sign on to financial reform this week.
On the other hand, if the votes are there to give President Obama bragging rights in Toronto, and if all but one or two Republicans in the Senate vote no, as now ap-pears all but certain, then the Democratic case for November will grow stronger.
IT MAY BE true at this time — for this week, maybe this two months — that the public is angry with government and has decided to take it out on the president and his party. But the American voter is notoriously fickle and most Americans spend most of their time feeling good about themselves and their country rather than looking at the world through mud-colored glasses.
When it comes time to vote four months from now, America’s mood may have turned from pitch black to sunny.
If the economy continues to pick up. If unemployment lessens. If the news from Afghanistan shows a ray or two of hope. Then all of those no votes on health care, on unemployment aid, on bank reform, on energy independence — no after no after no — may turn voters away from the Republican Party.
When the curtain on the polling booth is pulled closed and voters must decide what attitude toward the future is most appealing, optimists may decide they like the sound of “yes, you bet we can” more than, “no, we can’t — and it would cost too much to try.”
And most Americans are optimists.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
