Americans Mobilize to Enforce Glass-Steagall, Rout the British Bastards

May 11, 2010 (LPAC)—The LaRouche-led mobilization escalated on Washington, D.C., to force through the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall separation of commercial banking from speculation, and defeat the British financial assault on the United States, behind the Weimar II-style Federal Reserve/Eurozone unlimited global "bail-out." The mechanism to re-establish Glass-Steagall stands in the Senate, as Amendment 3884, filed May 6, to the Dodd S. 3217 "American Financial Stability Act of 2010," which is currently under Senate debate.

Procedurally, votes on amendments to the Dodd bill may occur this morning. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has stated his intent to rush through the "Financial Stability" bill by the Memorial Day recess, or even by the end of this week. However, the course of events will not be decided as a procedural question. Attempts to black out, and kill the Glass-Steagall initiative, amount to sticking a wine cork into a volcano.

The LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) is leading the charge. The new statement issued by Lyndon LaRouche, "The Brutish Bastards Are At It Again!" was covered on a midday edition of the LPACTV daily news show, "Off the Cuff," and went into mass distribution around Washington, D.C. as a leaflet in the Capitol Hill commuter belt. (Leaflets are on www.larouchepac.com/organize)

LaRouche commented in discussions: The truth of the matter is that civilization is at stake. A global Weimar II operation is now in progress; it is perpetrated by the British; and Americans—if not Europeans—can call a bastard, a bastard.

There is overwhelming support "outside the Washington Beltway" for Glass-Steagall, and against London's free-for-all chaos, despite the media control. All bets are off for any incumbent or candidate who does not not realign with this reality. In Utah, three-term Republican, Sen. Robert F. Bennett failed to get his party's re-nomination at the Republican caucus on Sunday, to unambiguous chants of "TARP, TARP, TARP." He came in third! This is the first time in 70 years that a Utah incumbent senator was kicked out, since Sen. William King was tossed by his Democratic Party in 1940, because he opposed the New Deal.

Look at what's happening in Iowa. One of the candidates in Iowa's June primary for the Democratic candidate to run against Sen. Charles Grassley (R) this Fall, has the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall as a policy plank. Tom Fiegen, a small-town attorney, from Clarence, Iowa, states that the relationship between the financial services sector and "us," has to be changed, and that he will work to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act. His website says that the 1999 repeal of that law allows banks, insurance, and other financial entities, to "play in each others' swimming pool."

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (D), is one of the six co-sponsors of S.A. 3884, and was a co-sponsor of its introduction as a separate bill in December 2009, along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Sen. Harkin spoke on Glass-Steagall on the Senate floor, on April 28, during the discussion at the time of the third procedural vote on whether to bring the Dodd "Financial Stability" bill to the floor. Harkin said, "In my view, a big reason for the financial collapse of 2008, is that things got seriously out of balance and out of whack. As Glass-Steagall was repealed, as special interests attacked the very idea of government regulation, and as the SEC and other watchdog agencies turned into permissive poodles, bad actors on Wall Street stepped into the void....[re. the Dodd bill]

"To further improve the bill, I am a co-sponsor of legislation offered by Senator Cantwell that would re-create the Great Depression regulation that prohibited the mixing of commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies....

"Mr. President, America has been through financial collapses and deep economic downturns before. In charting the way forward, we can learn important lessons from the financial crash of 1929 that led to the Great Depression. FDR answered that crisis by implementing tough new regulations to stabilize the financial system, to rein in risk-taking and recklessness on Wall Street, and to make the economy work for ordinary Americans. This led to decades of shared economic prosperity unprecedented in our nation's history...."