. Only if both votes are won will either act actually become law.

It's my understanding that the Senate CAN'T address a side-car/reconciliation bill on legislation. The Senate can only address a reconciliation bill on a law..

According to the US Constitution, a bill can ONLY be signed by the President into law if the identical legislation has been passed by both the House and the Senate by a AYE or NAY vote..

The President can't sign a bill that has been Demon Passed by either entity. To do so would violate the US Constitution..

Michale.....

The stimulus has done zero to help the situation, and plenty to make it worse. You've been highlighting that chart that shows the slowing down of job losses under Obama, yet you've made no mention of the fact that the median length of unemployment is now twice what it was pre-stimulus.

Pre-stimulus 50% of people were back to work within 10 weeks. Post-stimulus it grew to nearly 19 weeks. It's all good and well job losses flattening out to zero, but that does nothing for the people who are already unemployed and who, post-stimulus, face twice as long a wait to get new work.

Where I do agree with you, however, is that passing healthcare reform and Wall Street reform, whether I actually agree with how the Democrats are going about either (I don't) is still better than doing nothing. Passing nothing makes Democratic annihilation in November a certainty, passing something gives them a faint ray of hope.

Democrats are somewhat damned if they do and damned if they don't; I think their fate in November is all but sealed. They may as well pass as much of their agenda as they can while they still can.

I also agree with you that any regulation of Wall Street has to look at the causes of the crisis. For me it was down to over-leverage so it's key that any reform deals with tightening up cash reserves.

Molly:

I think Dodd is right to put the CFPB under the control of the Fed. In the UK we tried to go down the route of an independent body and it failed.

Whereas the Bank of England (our central bank) seemed to predict the crisis before it happened, but were powerless to stop it, the FSA, who had the power, were oblivious.

It's pretty much universally accepted on this side of the pond that taking away the supervisory role of the BoE was the reason our banks were hit harder than yours. If Americans think their bank bailout was bad, they should see the size of ours.

More regulation does not always equal more oversight. All it means is more paperwork for the banks to fill out. Regulators simply look to see if "Form X" is signed and bankers find more and more inventive ways to structure their products so they fall outside rules.

Instead, central bankers should have copies of the balance sheets of every major bank. Should they feel a bank has over-leveraged or taken too many risks, they should have a broad range of powers to act, with wide discretion. Beef up the Fed's powers.

But whatever you do, do not separate the central bank and the supervisory authority. We did, and it was a huge mistake, as it actually only serves to weaken both of them.

Michale:

I think you misunderstand the Slaughter solution. It would essentially deem the bill as having passed so as to enable to the Senate to act of the sidecar without the House actually having to vote on the Senate bill. I believe what would then happen is that when the House votes to pass the sidecar, after the Senate has passed it, they will also vote on the Senate bill. Only if both votes are won will either act actually become law.

And a slaughter of our Constitution it is, no 2 ways about it.

Postulate a scenario where the GOP under President Bush, proposed legislation that made it perfectly legal to torture terrorists. The GOP leadership, knowing that they couldn't pass the legislation with a REAL vote, simply "deem" the legislation to have passed and then send it on to President Bush to be signed into law.

Can you imagine the complete and utter hysterical outcry from ya'all specifically and the Left in general!?? Ya'all would simply go ballistic if the GOP tried such blatant trickery.

And yet, it is eerily silent around here with regards to Democrats total stomping on the US Constitution.

Michale.....

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVn9wrhB-3SF-Svo9kZyXd4bHRLAD9EG84VO0

Insurance premiums will actually go UP, not down as the Obama Administration claims.

Michale.....

Usually it takes months or years for the hypocrisy of politicians to become evident and obvious.

Last week, Democrats were all about "an up or down vote" when it came to reconciliation.

This week, with the Slaughter Option, Democrats don't even want to THINK about "an up or down vote".

Dems better be careful.

Such blatant 180 degree turnarounds can't be good for the spine...

Michale....

The only question remaining is how desperate will Democrats become to prop up the illusion that the Democrats want the American public to believe..

Considering the desperation we are seeing right now (reconciliation, the Slaughter option, etc etc) the answer to that seems to be...

"Pretty desperate.."

Michale.....