Obama and Dodd-Frank

I want to cover additional criticisms of President Obama in Hugh Hewitt's powerful book called The Brief Against Obama. This time, let's look at one of the least-reported fiascoes of the Obama years – the passage of the Dodd-Frank bill.

This law was touted as the most far-reaching financial reform since the Great Depression. What's a bit odd about this reform is its authors, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Frank was in charge of the overhaul of American banking while Dodd was busy trying to remain a few steps ahead of the investigators poking into the sweetheart deals he got from his friend, former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. Neither Frank nor Dodd ever explained their consistent protection of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the years when the Bush administration urged reform. They ignored concerns about the time bomb of subprime lending excess, which eventually blew up the American markets.

Here's the incredible part. Instead of confessing their role when the bomb went off, these perpetrators brazenly pointed their fingers at Wall Street and proposed an incredibly complex reform law. Unfortunately, this law still leaves Fannie and Freddie untouched despite promises from the White House. Instead, the bill codified "too-big-to-fail" by allowing the government to guarantee important banks, created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (headed by a single regulator and given sweeping, unchecked authority), and imposed hundreds of new regulations which make compliance very costly for small community banks.

How does Obama fit into all this? To this day he touts Dodd-Frank as an achievement of his administration. He has consistently blocked efforts to change or reform Dodd-Frank during his term. As a result, the complicated rules have created a short supply of credit. So, we have another reason to vote Obama out next month.