Don't Have The Juice

As widely expected, with the loss of Sen. Byrd and Sen. Feingold falling directly into Useful Idiot territory, the Dems now have a mountain to climb on financial reform and the bill itself is in mortal peril as "moderate" Republicans like Se. Scott Brown turn on the legislation.  The issue now is $19 billion in additional taxes on banks, and the Republicans won't stand for that.

Senate and House conferees on Wall Street reform are expected to reconvene Tuesday because of Republican objections to $19 billion in fees that would be placed on big financial firms.

The meeting would follow Sen. Scott Brown's (R-Mass.) letter to the chairmen of the conference committee on Tuesday, in which he said he would oppose the Wall Street overhaul bill as it stands.

In a letter to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Brown expressed "strong opposition" to the fees that were added in the conference process between House and Senate lawmakers last week.

"If the final version of the bill contains these higher taxes, I will not support it," he said.

Conferees had announced a deal early Friday morning, and had hoped to move to votes in the House and Senate this week.

No new conference meeting has been announced, but lobbyists and reporters are converging on the Rayburn House Office Building in anticipation of one this afternoon.

Brown had voted for the Senate's original version of the legislation before the fee was added. So had three other Republicans, but all of their votes are now in question.

The conference bill cannot be amended on the House and Senate floor, which would make a new conference meeting a requirement.

We'll see what happens, but I have been saying for months now that the Republicans will never let financial reform pass, and they are sticking right to the playbook.  When this issue is settled in conference, the Republicans will find something else to complain about and want to take out, all while running out the clock until campaign season.  It nearly worked on health care reform.  The rest of Obama's agenda:  climate legislation, immigration reform, and education reform, aren't going anywhere either.

The Republicans gain nothing if the bill passes, these financial firms have the money to pay off all sides.  But the Democrats lose with the voters if it doesn't pass.  That's been the case all along.

Let's not forget Russ Feingold's idiocy either.  Having this bill fail and making it even harder to pass it in January...that'll show em!