Elizabeth Warren Launches Take On Wall Street Campaign
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped kick off the “Take On Wall Street” campaign on Tuesday by detailing the work that remains undone by the Dodd-Frank financial reforms that were signed into law six years ago.
“The rules that protect our economy boil down to just two basic principles,” she said. “The first one: Government institutions shouldn’t be allowed to cheat people. … Second, financial institutions should not be allowed to force taxpayers to bail them out.”
Warren explained the need for a new level of financial reform by saying that while the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill did impose some discipline on the financial sector, “let’s get real: Dodd-Frank did not end too big to fail. If you think it did, stand on your head, because you are looking at the world upside-down.”
Warren embraced the Take On Wall Street campaign’s five-point agenda: Reinstate the Glass-Steagall wall separating consumer banking from speculative trading activities and other financial businesses, closed the “carried interest” loophole that allows people like hedge fund traders to pay a lower tax rate on their earnings than workers, eliminate the tax deduction for CEO “performance” bonuses, crack down on payday lenders and create “public option” banking services through entities like the U.S. Postal Service, and a financial transactions tax that would not only raise money for needed services but would help curb high-speed speculative trading.
“These changers will make our financial markets stronger and healthier, and give working families a fighting chance to build a real future for themselves and for their children,” Warren said.
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This has been reposted from the Campaign for America's Future.
