For eight long years, the Obama administration delivered to us 1-2% GDP subpar growth. It was a miserable “new normal” that showed up in so much of the decline of the country economically, particularly in America’s heartland. Under Obama, this part of the country – America’s main streets, its flyover, its vital industrial center – became a place of zero growth, social disintegration, low homeownership, methamphetamine dependency, Social Security disability dependency, and welfare. It’s as if a huge swath of the country had been thrown away in the name of the Obama Hipster Ideal.
Green regulations are one reason for the disaster, but an even bigger reason was likely that President Obama’s 2009 Dodd-Frank bank regulatory act that choked off large swathes of the economy and prevented any growth.
It was the brainchild of two corrupt East Coast Democrats – Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who primarily used their bill as a vehicle to grandstand on their phony claims, to punish investment banks, to promote Elizabeth Warren to carry on their work through the unaccountable Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, and to generally punish the flyover people who seemed to be living too well for their tastes. Obama eagerly signed onto it and then called it a big part of his legacy.
In reality, Dodd-Frank has been a curse on the economy. According to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz), it has:
- Spawned 400 new crippling regulations on banks and their capacity to lend.
- Favored big banks commonly found in the coastal cities over smaller banks commonly found in the heartland.
- Enshrined bailouts into permanent law.
- Harm[ed] bank lending among smaller banks which has in turn hampered startups which need bank capital.
- Established the largely unaccountable Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Biggs’s list goes on, but the bottom line is, it’s done way more harm than good and served only to promote big bank and Democrat interests, even as the rest of the country has suffered.
Fortunately, Congress is preparing to throw most of it out. Thursday, the House voted 233-186 to scrap key provisions of the Dodd-Frank bill, including cutting the power of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau and finally allowing community banks to lend again. The bill goes to the Senate, where the Democrats are expected to filibuster it but obviously remain vulnerable as the truth gets out about the appalling character of this economy-killing law.
In a counter-indicator if there ever was one, here is what the corrupt Maxine Waters has to say about the House action:
“This is one of the worst bills I have seen in my time in Congress,” said Rep. Maxine Waters of California, ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. “This bill is a vehicle for Donald Trump’s agenda to deregulate and help out Wall Street.”
That’s de facto proof that the bill is a good one, and the more of this the House can throw out, the more room the U.S. economy has to grow. The House itself even has a replacement act for the Dodd-Frank mess, called the House CHOICE act.
Let’s hope this quiet, under-the-radar constructive act from Congress sees the smooth sailing it should see. The economy deserves so much better than what it’s been stuck with all these years. Let’s hope this passes.
