Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Critics of President Obama...

...are now charging him with being "anti-business" for his efforts to curb the worst abuses of the health insurers, Wall Street, and BP. What will they think of next?

The failings of the health care industry are well-documented and don't need to be gone over again. Besides, health care reform is a settled issue.

As for financial regulatory reform, no less than former Goldman CEO (and Treasury Secretary) Henry Paulson approves of the current bill before Congress:

“We would have loved to have something like this for Lehman Brothers. There’s no doubt about it,” Mr. Paulson declared.
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[Paulson] said that he believed that if the government had had the authority to take over Lehman and A.I.G., it would have stopped the panic endangering other firms.
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But Mr. Paulson said that even more than the resolution authority, he saw the legislation’s creation of a systemic risk council as perhaps the most important aspect of the bill and crucial to preventing the next crisis. The council would give the various parts of government insight into what was going on elsewhere and the power to shut firms down or change practices that might put the system at risk.

And as for BP, well, is there anyone -- outside of Texas -- who doesn't think BP should pay for the damages it has incurred in the Gulf? Isn't that a no-brainer?

In each of these cases, the industries mentioned acted irresponsibly and need to be more tightly regulated. It's the government's role to protect the public. So what's the problem?

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