Is Mitch McConnell right...

...when he says that the financial regulatory reform bill provides for "endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks?" On McConnell's own Web site, he is quoted as saying:

“...But if there’s one thing Americans agree on when it comes to financial reform, it’s this: never again should taxpayers be expected to bail out Wall Street from its own mistakes. We cannot allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks. And that’s why we must not pass the financial reform bill that’s about to hit the floor. The fact is, this bill wouldn’t solve the problems that led to the financial crisis. It would make them worse.

“The American people have been telling us for nearly two years that any solution must do one thing — it must put an end to taxpayer funded bailouts for Wall Street banks. This bill not only allows for taxpayer-funded bailouts of Wall Street banks; it institutionalizes them.”

After watching McConnell and the Republicans in the debate over health care reform, I decided to consult with one of my favorite "fair and balanced" sources, Fox News (yes, Fox!):

The fight over financial regulatory reform is heating up, with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, taking center stage. After meeting with Wall Street execs last week to seek their support in this Fall's midterms, and hearing the execs' concerns about the upcoming regulatory reform debate (as first reported by Fox Business News), McConnell has come out swinging on this bill, declaring it a "bailout."

He gave a floor speech this morning to keep up the drumbeat that began earlier this week: the Dodd bill is a "bailout." This is a similar strategy the leader employed during the health care debate, during which the leader gave more than 100 floor speeches, sometimes one on every day of the week, hammering, hammering, hammering away at the bill.

So what is the casual observer (like me) supposed to think?

Well, according to Senator Mark Warner who, with Senator Bob Corker, was tasked with handling the problem of endless bailouts:

"It appears that the Republican leader either doesn't understand or chooses not to understand the basic underlying premise of what this bill puts in place."

"Resolution," Warner continued, "will be so painful for any company. No rational management team would ever choose resolution. It means shareholders wiped out. Management wiped out. Your firm is going away. At least in bankruptcy, there was some chance that some of your equity would've been retained and you could come out in some form on the other side of the process. The resolution that Corker and I have tried to create means the death of the company. The institution is gone."

Could that be any clearer?