Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), one of the lead negotiators on financial reform, said this morning that claims that the financial reform bill are tough on Wall Street is “laughable.”
“What regulation does is help the big guys and hurt the small guys,” Corker said on Morning Joe. “This derivatives piece, it doesn’t hurt Wall Street. You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“The fact is that it’s the end users, it’s those guys out there in Iowa, in Kansas, and it’s our community bankers across the country that we need to be concerned about with this regulation,” he said. “When this bill passes, the only thing that’s gonna happen is the large firms that exist are gonna get larger.”
Corker accused the administration of weakening language he had written with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
“There’s nothing in this bill that’s tough on Wall Street,” he said.
The panel asked Corker multiple times whether he was planning to propose a tougher bill. He wouldn’t answer except to say he supported certain tougher provisions.
Later today, Warner appeared on Fox News. Asked about his counterpart’s objections, Warner said Corker agreed they could be easily fixed.
