President Barack Obama fired back today at opponents of financial oversight reform, including banks and their lobbyists, referring to their “phony arguments and bad habits” that could leave the U.S. economy vulnerable to “another meltdown.”
The President’s weekly address came a day after the U.S. House approved a landmark financial regulation overhaul that creates a new overseer of the credit industry, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The reform bill has drawn significant opposition from banking groups, Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
They claim the new agency’s authority is either too vast or legally murky, and could jeopardize small business lending.
“This agency would have the authority to put an end to misleading and dishonest practices of banks and institutions that market financial products like credit and debit cards; mortgage, auto and payday loans,” Obama said in his address.
Obama then referred to the gathered opposition to the reform bill in the days leading up the yesterday’s vote.
“Just last week, Republican leaders in the House summoned more than 100 key lobbyists for the financial industry to a ‘pep rally,’ and urged them to redouble their efforts to block meaningful financial reform,” Obama said. “Not that they needed the encouragement. These industry lobbyists have already spent more than $300 million on lobbying the debate this year.”
Obama said that they opponents claim that reforms, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, will stifle consumer choice and that updated rules and oversight will frustrate innovation in the financial markets.
“But Americans don’t choose to be victimized by mysterious fees, changing terms, and pages and pages of fine print,” the President said. “And while innovation should be encouraged, risky schemes that threaten our entire economy should not. We can’t afford to let the same phony arguments and bad habits of Washington kill financial reform and leave American consumers and our economy vulnerable to another meltdown.”
Click here for President Obama’s weekly address.
