WA State Democratic and NV Republican Candidates Support Glass-Steagall

May 25, 2010 (LPAC)— In Washington State, Denny Heck, the Olympia Democrat hoping to win retiring Democrat Rep. Brian Baird's 3rd Congressional District seat, is supporting Sen. Maria Cantwell's Glass-Steagall amendment in very strong terms. And in the Nevada Senate Republican primary, Danny Tarkanian, who plans to run against the traitorous Sen. Harry Reid, also supports both Glass-Steagall and tougher laws against derivatives.

According to the Bellingham Herald, Denny Heck, the highest funded of the three Washington State Democratic primary candidates, put out a letter giving full support to Cantwell. He writes:

"Friends, Wall Street and reckless CEO's brought this country to its knees and materially contributed to over 7 million jobs lost in this country. Southwest Washington continues to suffer from the highest unemployment in the State, and no job is safe if we do not comprehensively reform Wall Street and the casino capitalism that got us into this mess.

"But Senator Cantwell was right tonight - the financial reform legislation just passed by the Senate does not go far enough.

"Missing from this legislation are two important provisions proposed by Senator Cantwell that would have closed critical loopholes which led directly to the type of casino capitalism that got us into this mess in the first place.

"Congress must reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act — which separated commercial and investment banking in this country for over six decades.

"The Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999 and allowed banks to become both commercial lenders and investment companies. This allowed big banks to become 'too-big-to-fail' banks, using our federally-insured deposit money to make bets and take risks.

"Banks should get back to the business of being banks, where our money is safe and being lent responsibly to small businesses and around our communities — creating jobs.

"Wall Street's derivatives bets must be forced out of the shadows and onto publicly traded exchanges.

"Senator Cantwell's other proposal would have tightened clearing requirements for derivatives trading, making it illegal to evade trading a derivative on a public exchange and actually voiding the trade if it violated those rules. Clearing of derivatives is the heart and soul of Wall Street reform because it requires traders to put up money to back their bets. It might be hard to believe, but making bets with other people's money was, and continues to be, a common practice on Wall Street.

"Forcing these derivatives out of the shadows is essential to prevent banks from ever looking to taxpayers again when their bets go bad.

"To be sure, tonight's passage is a good start for reform — but 'good' isn't enough when reining in Wall Street.

"Senator Cantwell was right tonight — Congress must strengthen this Wall Street reform and now has the opportunity to do so during the upcoming conference negotiations.

"I have talked about this from day-one on the campaign, and will continue to call on Congress to step up to the plate to deliver real, comprehensive Wall Street reform. I hope you will too." Signed, Denny Heck.

In Nevada, Tarkanian, an extremely well-known ex-University of Nevada basketball star, is not only freaking out Harry Reid, but also the Republican establishment and Tea Party Express, which is demanding that he drop out of the Republican primary in favor of a Republican who has not supported Glass-Steagall. Tarkanian denounced the Tea Party Express effort as an attempt to "corporatize" the Tea Party movement, and he refuses to drop out.

The "Reid-b-gone" blog reports that Tarkanian supports "tougher rules on the trading of derivatives," and "he also called for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act to separate commercial and investment banks." He also opposes bailouts saying, "We must get away from the bailout mentality that has taken over Congress since the first Wall Street bailout...."

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