A Bunch Of Block Heads, Part 2

Republicans continue to try to do anything they can to make sure government doesn't try to regulate the multi-trillion dollar Wall Street tycoons.

Republicans aiming to unhinge the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation have turned to a new line of attack and have told the Treasury, Federal Reserve and other regulators to do more due diligence, according to a letter obtained on Thursday.

The letter raises questions about whether U.S. regulators are adequately following federal rule-making procedures such as reviewing public comments and conducting rigorous economic analyses of the rules' impact on the industry.

A failure to abide by these guidelines has in the past forced the Securities and Exchange Commission to backtrack on numerous rules. The issue could come up again under Dodd-Frank if industry groups decide to challenge regulators for weaknesses in their rule making.

"We are concerned that regulators are not allowing adequate time for meaningful public comment on their proposed rules," said the letter, which was addressed to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the heads of the Fed and market and banking regulators.

"We also believe that regulators are not conducting rigorous analyses of the costs and benefits of their rules and the effects those rules could have on the economy," said the letter, signed by the Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank.

The letter was dated February 15 and sent the same week Republicans on the committee voiced concerns about short public comment periods and the quality of cost-benefit analyses.

In short, the Republicans are back to complaining that government is doing too much, just like they did during the PPACA debate.  Not enough public comment, not enough cost-benefit analysis, not enough time to implement the rules.  At the same time, Republicans are making sure these regulators don't have the staff or resources they need to get the job done:

The SEC has been without a chief economist for 10 months. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meanwhile, only just filled the chief economist spot in December following an 11-month vacancy.

"The failure to promptly fill these key positions suggests that economic analyses is not a high priority for our regulators," Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the panel, told regulators.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler have assured lawmakers in a series of hearings this week that the agencies are following federal rule-making procedures and having in-house economists weigh in on the cost-benefit analyses that are required.

"We are absolutely trying to grow" the number of economists on staff, which currently totals 30, Schapiro said, adding that the agency is aggressively recruiting a chief economist.

Kind of hard to do when Republicans are proposing to cut financial regulators' budget this year by billions and to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau completely.  Republicans don't want anyone taking too close a look at Wall Street.  That's what Wall Street is paying the Republicans to make happen, and they have unlimited billions to see it through.