Scott Brown "has listened to his constituents" and will definitely vote "no" on financial reform

"It's as if Tony Hayward of BP were allowed to write new rules on deep water drilling," the WSJ editors analogize in "Triumph of the Regulators." Above, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, chief architects of the "sweeping" financial "reform" bill careening through the halls of Congress, beam at the thought of the latest bit of legislative handiwork they are preparing to impose on the American people. Associated Press photo.

Scott Brown "has listened to his constituents," an aide in our junior Senator's office just told us, and will definitely vote "no" on the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill should it come to the floor. ABC explains why that may not happen soon:

The Senate was expected to vote on the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill this week, giving the President the opportunity to sign the most sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations since the Great Depression before Congress's July 4 recess.

But …

Without Robert Byrd — or a Democratic replacement to fill Byrd's seat — they may not have the votes to pass it. On the critical procedural vote that enabled the bill to pass the Senate on May 20, Democrats prevailed 60-40. Senator Byrd's vote was essential; the bill had exactly the number of votes needed to pass.

And there's this: Democrats seem to have lost another vote. Sen. Scott Brown, one of just four Republicans in the Senate who voted for the Senate's version of the bill, is now suggesting he may oppose it because it now includes $18 billion in taxes and fees.

"I've said repeatedly that I cannot support any bill that raises taxes," Brown had told reporters Friday, raising our hopes:

While I'm still reviewing the bill's details, my fear is that these costs would be passed onto consumers in the form of higher bank, ATM and credit card fees and put a strain on lending at the worst possible time for our economy.

Nor was he amused that $18 billion in new assessments and fees had been "added in the wee hours of the morning by the conference committee." Our Mr. Brown, now outpolling senior Senator Kerry and President Obama here in Massachusetts, is proving to be a quick study in the ways of Washington, a fact that isn't going over well with the folks at Daily Kos, who snarked "So much for the wisdom of negotiating with Scott Brown to give him his big bank carve-out on the Volcker Rule." Nyah, nyah, nyah. Meanwhile, Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd blithely acknowledged that "No one will know until this is actually in place how it works." As an eye-rolling WSJ explains, the system will be built "not around clear parameters of what institutions can and cannot do, but instead entirely on regulator discretion":

President Obama hailed the financial bill that House-Senate negotiators finally vouchsafed at 5:40 a.m. Friday, and no wonder. The bill represents the triumph of the very regulators and Congressmen who did so much to foment the financial panic, giving them vast new discretion over every corner of American financial markets.

Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, those Fannie Mae cheerleaders, played the largest role in writing the bill. Congressman Paul Kanjorski even offered a motion to memorialize it as the Dodd-Frank Act. It's as if Tony Hayward of BP were allowed to write new rules on deep water drilling.

The Federal Reserve, which promoted the housing mania and failed utterly in its core mission of monitoring Citigroup, will now have more power to regulate more financial institutions and more ability to dictate the allocation of credit …

Oh,and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? They aren't touched at all, even as they continue to lose billions of taxpayer dollars each quarter.

Where is Friedrich Hayek when you need him?

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Kinda fun: NYT Politics "From around the web" link.

Update III: Instalanche! Thank you, Professor Reynolds. 'Hope Scott Brown is still listening. We didn't like the sound of this morning's WaPo headline:

Scott Brown reconsidering support of financial regulation bill.

Update IV: Christine Varley's Greater Boston Tea Party is sponsoring a Senator Brown, Just Vote NO! Rally in front of Brown's Boston office today at noon.

Update V: Woohoo! Professor Jacobson's Post of the Day!

Cross-posted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[Dave B]

I'm from MA and the lefties are hitting Senator Brown pretty hard for "siding with Big Oil" and other such nonsense in millions of dollars worth of commercials. The ironic thing is that they use the term "we" when they say "we sent you to Washington." The people responsible for these commercials certainly weren't part of the "we" that sent him to the Senate. My only hope is that he's starting to see what the Democrats are doing... everything they do means higher taxes and lost liberties. They showed how much they cared about the "people" when they stuffed Healthcare down our throats, and in Massachusetts where we already have it we got the double whammy from our "representatives" and nobody has called them out on it. The only guy to actually represent the people and not the government political party (Democrats) was Brown.

[Noel]

Comprehensive Financial Reform:

Neither comprehensive nor financially sound, nor reform. Perfect!

[goomp]

Get fully awake, America. Vote the rascals out.

[PD Quig]

Dodd and Frank are two of the chief architects of the financial crisis. Vote against this POS or consider yourself in league with these two losers, Mr. Brown.

[KingShamus]

It's good to see the holder of the People's Seat staying firm on this. My sense is that Mass. voters who supported Senator Brown will always have to keep an eye on him.

Then again, that's the way it should be. Nobody should take their congress-critter's votes for granted.

[Chris]

I was one of Scott's out of state financial supporters. I voiced my displeasure after he voted for the POS version that was passed in the senate. I don't expect him to vote like my red state senators do, but this is one piece of legislation to take a stand on. Good to know that collectively we may have had an effect on him.

[lacoste shirts]

nothing in the world is impossible if you set your mind to do it.