The Party of Finance

LAT notes that Clinton and Obama are raising tons of money from finance types, "easily surpassing Republican John McCain in campaign contributions from the troubled financial services sector" and that "some Democrats worry that the influx of money will make their candidates less willing to call for increased regulation of financial markets, which have been in turmoil after a wave of foreclosures on sub-prime mortgages." Kevin Drum says "considering that 18 Democratic senators voted in favor of the 2005 bankruptcy bill and that virtually no one in the party was willing to push hard to end the capital gains loophole for hedge fund managers last year, I'd say that will make is in the wrong tense."

Right. The solution here would be for the GOP to pull its head out of its ass and have some members go where the Democratic Party fears to tread. "I believe in low taxes, but also in fair taxes -- hedge fund managers should pay the same rate as everyone else; these kind of inequities only push up tax rates on hard-working middle-class Americans." Is that so hard to say? To go further and say that if non-bank financial firms are going to be bailed-out when they get into trouble just like banks, then they should also be regulated just like banks would seem to me to be an ideal thing for a reformer like John McCain to step up and say, only that would probably have to happen in an alternate universe where McCain has some grasp of public policy. So instead we'll be missing John Edwards.

Photo by Flickr user Bert van Dijk used under a Creative Commons license