Lobbyist Secretly Wrote House Dems' Letter Urging Weaker Investor Protections
Source: Mother Jones
Lobbyist Secretly Wrote House Dems' Letter Urging Weaker Investor Protections
Thirty-two liberal Democrats signed onto a letter drafted by a financial-industry lobbyist that aims to block protections for millions of Americans' retirement accounts.
June 14 letter from 32 House Democrats to the Department of Labor.
A letter that a group of progressive Democrats sent to federal regulators opposing new protections for millions of Americans' retirement accounts was drafted by a financial-industry lobbyist, according to documents obtained by Mother Jones.
The Department of Labor, which oversees the federal law setting minimum standards for many retirement plans, would like to require retirement investment advisers to act in the best interest of their customers, as opposed to their own best interest.
But 28 out of the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)a group of African American members of Congress that advocates the interests of low-income people and minoritiessigned onto a June 14 letter opposing the rule. So did Democratic lawmakers Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Ed Pastor of Arizona, and Jim Costa of California.
The letter's metadata indicates it was drafted by Robert Lewis, a lobbyist who works for the Financial Services Institute (FSI), an investment industry trade group:
Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/congressional-black-caucus-fiduciary-duty-rule-financial-services-institute
progressoid
(49,827 posts)CarrieLynne
(497 posts)more and more I just wanna go hide somewhere.....
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)BlueManFan
(256 posts)Shame on these hypocritical fucks!!!!!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)and by doing this, they are doubtless getting more.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)at first glance, it looks like the Obama administration is on the side of people and these Democratic congress members are on the side of the financial industry, on this issue.
iemitsu
(3,888 posts)We need to being to recognize the symptoms of an illegitimate government.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)iemitsu
(3,888 posts)I'm so discouraged.
I know that the only way I have of making the world a better place is to be a good person, whose actions are determined by what is good for the community.
I know I can't make others do "the right thing", I can only lead by example.
But when those, who are supposed to be champions for your cause, abandon you, it makes one ask, "What's the point?".
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)I think the parties don't know yet that cons and libs are ALL waking up to the bullshit of the last 13 years, anyway.
I'm in Texas and the cons are copping to having been used and bullshitted by "their' side. So are lots of libs. WE ARE RUNNING IN a circle ... toward each other.
Don't lose faith.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
in name only - actions speak louder than words
these are not liberals
period.
CC
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts).
brisas2k
(76 posts)"If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtainedwe must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us."
- Patrick Henry, Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, March 23, 1775