GOP calls for bipartisan approach on financial reform as key vote nears
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As the clock wound down toward a key test vote Monday, Republicans called for a bipartisan approach to financial reform.
“All of us want to deliver a reform that will tighten the screws on Wall Street, but we’re not going to be rushed on another massive bill,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in televised remarks from the Senate floor.
As McConnell spoke, it appeared all 41 Republicans senators were prepared to vote against a Democratic move to bring a financial overhaul bill to the floor, a cloture vote. If the move fails, Democrats can try again or try to bring a revised bill to the floor.
Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the cloture vote was scheduled for about 2 p.m. PDT.
“This afternoon’s vote is a vote merely to begin debate,” Reid said on the floor, but he added that Wall Street disliked the Democratic bill.
Politics are certainly a key part of the maneuvering as each party seeks to define an issue that will help with the upcoming midterm elections. Polls indicate that voters overwhelmingly blamed Wall Street for the current economic downturn, and both parties are trying to find the right side of the issue.
Democrats have focused on branding Republicans as the servants of Wall Street who are seeking to block any meaningful change in how financial institutions are regulated. Republicans counter that they want change but also want to negotiate key provisions of the legislation, including a $50-billion industry-supported fund that the GOP sees as an invitation to taxpayer bailouts, a position Democrats reject.
“There is general agreement on both sides of the aisle” on the need for reform, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on the floor. He called for a return to talks by both parties.
Negotiators haven’t reached agreement “on every single issue, but “they were making some progress,” he said.
“We have a chance to get things right. ... “Instead we have a little campaign theme from the White House” to portray Republicans in bed with Wall Street, he said.
-- Michael Muskal
