Saturday, May 1, 2010

UPDATE: Congress Is At It Again


Did you know that the Wall Street Bill that they are trying to push through the House has "...provisions that would put the Federal Trade Commission in position to start issuing rules on Internet transactions that would not only slow down business growth but also have no relevance at all to the financial collapse that prompted the bill..."?

Seal of the United States Federal Trade Commis...
The version of regulatory overhaul legislation passed by the House would allow the FTC to issue rules on a fast track and permit the agency to impose civil penalties on companies that hurt consumers. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has argued in favor of bolstering his agency’s enforcement ability. …

Of course he has!

Just another example of Congress slipping "unrelated" power grabs within bills so as to speed up their continued effort to expand the Federal government and promote their progressive agenda.  The latest example was the student loan takeover included in the health care bill.  Student loans have nothing to do with health care, just as internet transactions have nothing to do with the Wall St. "meltdown".

The progressive agenda must be pushed through before it's too late, and the Obama Administration is doing it any way they can, as fast as they can.

This has become a pattern with this Congress and administration. Despite having large majorities in both chambers, Democrats refuse to use the legislative path to pass regulation — mainly because the regulations they want are too radical to pass. Instead, they shift the creation of regulation to agencies like the EPA and its “endangerment” finding for CO2, which would then require Congress and the President to undo rather than vote to impose in the first place.

In this case, they want to give the FTC over-reaching powers:

The Federal Trade Commission could become a more powerful watchdog for Internet users under a little-known provision in financial overhaul legislation that would expand the agency’s ability to create rules.

Read the entire article at HotAir.com

I have some questions.  Are the Republicans trying to take the FTC provision out of the bill?  And if not, why?  I know they have had problems with the financial regulation part of the bill, but I can't find anything about the GOP stance on the FTC provisions included in the bill.  Does anyone have information on this?

The 2010 elections can't come fast enough.  The questions are...(1) how much damage will be done before a new Congress is sworn in and (2) will the new Congress be willing and/or able to undo the damage?

My thought is that as long as Obama is in office, reversal of the damage will be difficult to accomplish, so "damage control" may be the only thing possible.

That leaves 2012...and the GOP candidate for President.  We can't afford another "John McCain-type" candidate...the stakes are too high.  Any suggestions, or it it too soon to tell?

UPDATE: I found another thing Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) sneeked into the Wall Street Bill that gives the FTC more power, this time over vitamins (I kid you not). Read about it at WallStreetSurvivor.com.

More info at The Progress & Freedom Foundation.

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4 comments:

  1. Scary post, CL. I hope the Republicans are on top of this.

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  2. Dan:
    I can't find anything that says the Republicans have even addressed it.

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  3. This is scary CL. I hope the GOP starts going after it.

    It is probably too early, but I like Paul Ryan. He's young, smart, and from what I have seen, is really good on the issues.

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  4. Hi Matt:
    I hope so, too.
    As for Paul Ryan...I like him alot, but I don't know if he has any intentions of running for President in 2012.

    ReplyDelete

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