Senate debates Bernanke nomination with vote possible today
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The Senate this morning took up the renomination of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, with the leading liberal critic attacking the nominee’s policies that some say favor Wall Street at the expense of the common person.
In a fiery populist attack, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, criticized Bernanke for being the candidate of the greedy financial institutions while ignoring the middle class.
“The American people are angry,” Sanders said. “The American people are frustrated and what they are angry and frustrated about is that in many instances they are working longer hours for lower wages than they used to if they are fortunate enough to have a job.
“They want change at the Fed and I believe want a new chairman or chairwoman at the Fed. Now is the time to say to the American people: ‘We hear you.’
“Deny appointment of Ben Bernanke as chairman,” he urged, asking President Obama to nominate another person whose policies would help the middle class by giving better access to low-interest credit.
Sanders’ attack was the liberal populist side of the opposition to Bernanke. But some conservatives have also said they opposed Bernanke’s bid for a second four-year term.
Conservatives complain that Bernanke has expanded the role of government by infusing trillions of dollars into the economy and into institutions that would have failed without taxpayer intervention.
Conservatives and liberals are reacting to what the polls show is a growing unhappiness with the economy and Wall Street in particular. Obama, who nominated Bernanke, spoke to the same anger and frustration in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night when he proposed a fee on financial institutions to recover all taxpayer funds given in the bailouts.
The Senate could hold a vote on Bernanke’s nomination today, said Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
-- Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal
