Forum Post: Opposition to Glass Steagall in congress

The two primary leaders in the fight for Glass Steagall in the House of Representatives, Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Walter Jones (R-NC), have both been directly attacked by their party leaders and denied their rightful positions on important committees.

Kaptur, the author of the Glass-Steagall bill, HR 1489, was the next in line by seniority to take over as ranking member on the powerful Appropriations Committee. The party leaders chose instead Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), a dedicated servant of Wall Street. The Hill described this as "a victory for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who championed Lowey."

The party hacks and the press accounts lie that the major issue was abortion rights, since Kaptur is pro-life. But take note that Rep. Walter Jones, the leading Republican fighting for Glass-Steagall, was unceremoniously dumped from the Financial Services Committee by Speaker John Boehner. Jones, an original co-sponsor of HR 1489, is one of only 4 Republican co-sponsors (out of 83 total). Jones circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter to all the House Republicans, and challenged Geithner in a June hearing, on his refusal to consider restoration of Glass-Steagall. Jones has granted three interviews to LaRouchePAC TV on Glass- Steagall as well as his efforts to stop Obama's wars.

Further demonstrating that both parties are in bed with Wall Street to stop Congress from acting on Glass-Steagall, Daniel Tarullo, the head of bank supervision at the Federal Reserve, attacked Glass-Steagall by name in a speech at the Brookings Institute on Tuesday, saying it would impose "substantial costs" and limit financing options available to bank clients. An unnamed banker told the Washington Post at the event that: "To the extent that Tarullo takes a leadership role in getting the evidence to back up any conclusions, [this] is much more productive than just having members of Congress introduce legislation, or create dynamics that force regulators to do things without merit." Apparently these banksters passed on these orders to their tame party leaders, and the axe fell on two of the few courageous members of the Congress.