Vice President Joe Biden was in Virginia yesterday, reminding voters that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan intend to roll back the clock on Wall Street safeguards and layers of accountability. "[Romney] said in the first 100 days, he's going to let the big banks write their own rules -- unchain Wall Street," Biden said. "They're going to put y'all back in chains."
The apoplexy was almost immediate. Republicans and the media condemned the line, accusing Biden of arguing that the Romney-Ryan ticket somehow supports slavery. Reporters used this as an example of campaign rhetoric reaching the gutter and the GOP used this as evidence of the Obama campaign's viciousness.
Yes, Biden used the wrong metaphor. I doubt it was planned; I also doubt we'll hear it again; and I'm quite certain the "chains" line won't be the centerpiece of the Obama campaign's messaging in the coming weeks and months.
But there's a forest-trees problem -- there's nothing wrong with slapping Biden's wrist for an example of rhetorical excess, but can we at least try to notice the policy matter he was referencing at the time? Mitt Romney addressed the subject this morning:
"The comments of the vice president, as I heard them, were I thought one more example of a divisive effort to keep from talking about the real issues. Look, no one is talking about deregulating Wall Street!"
Well, that's not quite right. It's true that Romney isn't proposing a complete elimination of every Wall Street regulation, but he has promised to destroy every new safeguard imposed by the Obama administration in the wake of the 2008 crash. (Romney would also eliminate the Sabranes-Oxley protections created with bipartisan support after the Enron fiasco.)
"No one is talking about deregulating Wall Street"? Well, someone is talking about going back to the regulatory framework as it existed when the global financial system nearly collapsed due to mismanagement, irresponsibility, and insufficient oversight.
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A couple of things. The Obama adminsitration has, by any measure been a great friend to Wall Street.
As Matt Taibbi writes they have made a conscious decision not to prosecute any financial institutions for their fraud:
Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/ag-eric-holder-has-no-balls-20120815#ixzz23dexEUQ6
Furthermore the leading corporate contributors to Obama's 2008 campaign were these same institutions:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638
Finally, even at Harvard they know that Dodd-Frank was an awful unworkable piece of legislation:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2012/07/29/the-parallel-universe-of-the-volcker-rule/
So Bidens's comments were not only factually incorrect, but particularly ironic in light of the administration's BFF attitude to Wall Street.
Mitt Romney's top ten contributors are from Wall Street; among Obama's top ten--none from Wall Street. So, what's your point???
yes, this year, they got what they wanted from Obama in 2008 and now they are changing horses.
RIDE-OR-DIE Joe was just telling the truth
At the most a small gaff, but his meaning was very clear & true. In the meantime Romney was lying his head off to the miners. His outrageous lies are what everyone should be adressing.
Y'all quit pickin' on Wall Street! They have had it really really tough these past 4 years.
The day Obama took office- Jan 22, 2009- the Dow Jones was at 8122.80. Today it is at 13,170.83. Up 61%.
Talk about inflation- why, with stock prices as high as they are now, hardly anyone can afford to buy some!
(: - )
Steve? Please. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the rhetoric. No one who has found themselves in over their heads in debt, whether through misfortune or misfeasance, would question the aptness of the metaphor. Debt feels very much like a chain. You feel it like a heavy chain wrapped around you that's dragging you down beneath the waves. You feel it like a chain anchoring you to a place or a job or both that you'd like to leave but can't. And, especially when they're paying people to call you up and yell at you, you very much feel like you are owned by, and work only for, the creditor.
And as it happens, that's exactly where a majority of the middle class found themselves when the economy collapsed in 2008. Under Clinton, real median income for the middle class rose by $7,000. Under Bush, it declined by $2,100. For the better part of a decade, people who thought the decline was a temporary blip rather than a deliberately sought outcome by those with access to power tried to make up the difference with borrowing. And that's where they found themselves when the economy crashed. Poorer and deeper in debt after a "recovery" where they mostly moved backwards. The Republicans are raising hell precisely because they know how strongly the metaphor will resonate.
Republicans don't believe there's really such a thing as racism, at least as a widespread phenomenon, and thus think Democrats only raise the issue to score cheap cynical points. Which, in turn, justifies them to do it. And that's what is going on here.
There is no racial component to the remark. It is entirely a figment of the imagination of people who need a new thing to get their minions whipped up into a state of hysteria about this minute, a new distraction for our easily distracted MSM and, above all, a way to derail a conversation that scares them.
Chained, as in I may be chained to the cash register at my lousy retail job until I am 85 years old if I want to have a roof over my head and eat.
Personally I fail to understand the "faux outrage" - Smokin' Joe told the truth once again! If Robme gets into office there will be a repeal of anything and once again the banksters will do as they please, and WE the PEOPLE will be left holding the bag in chains!
I think Robme & Pauly-boy need to take those Nuns up on their offer to ride with them and see what real working Americans have been going thru, because of their blind adherence to failed policies!!
GO Smokin' Joe - tell the truth and shame the devil!!
Joe the nut Biden is out of control. But thats OK with me, he's showing Obama colors more every day. Say it aint so Joe.
Unchain banks & chain taxpayers. Sounds like Governor Romney's plan. Why is he complaining if his plan is being advertised?
Did we all agree to outlaw metaphor in campaigns, now? It was not over the line; it was poetic. This is just more Republican projection -- they know they play the race card often so they need to inoculate themselves by accusing Biden of doing it.
There's really nothing to see here.
Mr. Benen, I'm starting to get rather irritated at how you keep buckling under to the fake outrage machine. First Sen. Reid, now VP Biden. Neither of then said anything inappropriate. As for Sen. Reid, so long as Romney openly refuses to release his tax returns on the basis that they would make him look bad, we are perfectly free to speculate on how they make him look bad.
And as for VP Biden, his "chains" statement was a bit hyperbolic at worst, but otherwise was absolutely true. The GOP, with Romney leading the way, really do want to chain at least 95% of Americans to serving the interests of the upper 1%. The reason the GOP is freaking out about this isn't because of the rhetoric, it's because Biden is telling the truth about them.
Seriously, stop doing the GOP's work for them. When one of our people slaps them hard in the face with the truth, let *them* whine about it. *Our* job is to laugh at them when they start crying.
Only differences with the chains we will have and Wall Streets is their chains are Golden.
No need to get that far into the weeds -- "No one is talking about deregulating Wall Street" is simply a lie. Deregulation doesn't mean "removing all regulations" -- Reagan's deregulation of the airlines didn't mean there were no regulations on airlines.
Romney absolutely has proposed deregulating Wall Street. If he's not talking about it (and denying it), that's only because it's unpopular, not because it isn't true.
I just want to say two things ...
Number one , Attorney General ERIC HOLDER has NO BALLS !...
Number two , Barack Obama for all his uplifting rhetoric in 2008 HAS NO BALLS EITHER !..
They both deserve to be out of a job in 2012 !...
BARACK OBAMA for being a WALL STREET HACK !...
And ERIC HOLDER for DERELICTION OF DUTY as Attorney General of these United States !.. The most INEFECTIVE Attorney General in Decades !...
And by the way before I forget , F**K OBAMA !.. F**K ERIC HOLDER !..
And most of all a MASSIVE F**k YOU TOO Treasury secretary TIM GEITHNER !...
All three of you are full of S**T !...
High Five.
Two points. If Romney or Ryan mimicked a southern drawl and said that Obama wanted to put "y'all back into chains" to racially mixed audience, he would be crucified by the liberal press - CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and of course msnbc. There is a double standard by the press.
Two, I work at small community bank and start to see the new regulations which are coming in now from Dodd-Frank. The current new regulations have nothing to do with the half dozen sub-prime mortgage originators (Countrywide, Washington Mutual, World Savings, Ameriquest) and the half dozen investment banks with the voracious appetite for mortgage backed securities. Our bank is regulated by a handful of different state and fed regulators, each auditing our files to see if we are complying. As a result more time is spent documenting files and chasing after more customer reporting and compliance documentation rather than prospecting for new loans. Also given the heightened criticism from the regulators, our credit requirements have tightened making it even more difficult to make loans. So yes the unintended consequence of further financial regulation is to make it more difficult for banks to make new loans to small businesses to stimulate the economy and increase private job creation.