The White House’s general approach to legislation has been to be an interested party — a nudge here, a supportive statement there — while the president himself stays out of the nitty-gritty day-to-day process. Many a commentator insisted he was too aloof on health care, letting petty and parochial interests in Congress hijack his signature initiative. But Obama is wading into the financial reform debate in a much more pro-active and targeted manner. Following up on the Dan Pfeiffer blog post I mentioned this morning, the White House is sending around a statement from the president slamming Richard Shelby’s consumer finance protection amendment that may get a vote today.
The language is particularly scathing and there’s another implicit veto threat weaved in: “I will not allow amendments like this one written by Wall Street’s lobbyists to pass for reform.” It’s a testament to how different the politics of financial reform are from those of the health care debate, and another sign the White House is convinced it has a strong hand to play.
Shelby’s amendment (pdf summary here) would limit the scope and reach of a proposed consumer finance protection bureau and shift it from the Fed to the FDIC. Full Obama statement after the jump:
