Greg Sargent divines out of Frank Luntz's latest what the next line of attack on the bill from the GOP will be.
Here’s the key bit:
The Democrats supporting the current legislation have assured an anxious electorate that whatever funds are used to create whatever regulatory scheme created will come from the banks, not the taxpayers. Let me emphasize that so that even casual readers will catch it: the Democrats promise that you won’t pay for their legislation, banks will.
Really?
Since when have corporations ever paid taxes, fees or penalties? Employees end up paying in the form of lower salaries and benefits. Customers end up paying in the form of higher costs.
And in this case, every account holder will be forced to pay higher fees on their checking account and savings account. That’s you, my friendly reader. Can you say “checkbook tax”? I can, and I think lots of candidates will be saying it come November.
If Luntz says lots of candidates will be using the phrase “checkbook tax” to describe the alleged fees that will be passed on to consumers, we should take him at his word.
Sargent's right. Frank Luntz is the ventroloquist and all Republican politicians his dummies. The last attempt--"tax-payer funded bail-out"--as Sargent points out, failed in the face of strong and consistent rebuttal by Democrats. This one can be, too. Simon Johnson narrows in on the key for Dems:
This is about the “arc of the fraud”. The financial system committed fraud during the boom (liar loans and misrepresentation to customers of all kinds); fraud during the bailout (“if you ruffle our feathers, we will collapse”); and now fraud during the serious attempts at reform (e.g., the astroturf/fake grassroots nonsense.)
Luntz thinks this is about higher costs being passed on to consumers and wants to fight in November on “the Democrats are just about special interests”. That would be terrific – for the Democrats – and Mr. Luntz should be encouraged in this endeavor.
Mr. Luntz insists that it is not about what you say, but about what you hear. I couldn’t agree more – this is readily apparent as I travel the country talking to many people about fixing the financial system and what we need to do going forward.
This is what people hear: “fraud”. They understand that our biggest banks and other financial players have become too big and too powerful. They know these people need to be reined in and they also realize this is going to be a heck of a fight – most likely over many years. They understand that Wall Street took over Washington and has run it, in large part, for too long – this is the central point of 13 Bankers; if anything, readers now find this rather obvious. [emphasis mine]
Democrats need to keep this about what it really is about: Wall Street fraud. The GOP, guided by Luntz and raking in the Wall Street dough will attempt to change the subject. Dems can't let them.