Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, took to the Senate floor today to tie Republicans to “big banks” and to accuse them of preparing to filibuster a bill that would put an end to bailouts.
Dodd attacked Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his claims that the financial reform bill Dodd is working on would lead to even more bailouts.
“You see, these Wall Street firms believe that no matter how much we hate bailouts, if they’re important enough at the end of the day, taxpayers will come riding in on a white horse to save them, just like they did under the Bush administration,” he said. “This bill kills the white horse.”
“The bill stops bailouts,” he went on. “To insist otherwise indicates either the minority leader doesn’t know whats in the bill or he chose to distort what’s in the bill.”
As TPMDC reports today, Democrats would be happy to move forward without a bipartisan compromise and let Republicans filibuster the bill. In his floor speech, Dodd accused Republicans of threatening to filibuster even before they see the bill.
He said Republicans were circulating a letter “pledging that each Republican senator will vote to filibuster this bill and keep it from even being discussed. I hope that’s not the case. I can’t tell you … what a denial of everything I’ve stood for and worked on here in countless pieces of legislation for three decades, to have members of this body who have spent hours with me crafting this bill I’ll offer, including their ideas, to then vote against even allowing this bill to be debated. I just know that cannot happen.”
His speech went on for about 10 minutes. Here’s the best minute or so:
