Obama pulls a Clinton

Obama and his new Chase Chief of banker staffer

If you're unfamiliar with Robert Scheer, it's time to catch up! His truthdig website is a goldmine of alternative news and reporting. Recently he posted a column in the Huffington Post and it's a doozy. Responding to Obama's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal (I'm not kidding, the Wall Street Journal), Scheer takes Obama to task for being a little bit too Clinton.

He employed the same "creating a 21st-century regulatory system" rationalization used by Clinton when he signed off on the sweeping deregulation legislation that unleashed the Wall Street greed that ended up being the biggest job-killer since the Great Depression. "Over the (past) seven years, we have tried to modernize the economy," Clinton enthused as he signed the Financial Services Modernization Act that repealed key New Deal legislation, adding, "And today what we are doing is modernizing the financial services industry, tearing down those antiquated laws and granting banks significant new authority." Modernizing was the propaganda constant, as in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that Clinton signed, thus shielding financial derivatives from any government regulation.

Is there a gun to his head? Otherwise Obama would not be shutting down all the regulations that keep us safe (from poison and greedy bankers, same diff) or appointing millionaires to his staff (Chase bank on your resume at $5 million a year, you're in!)

Here's a link to the column:
Robert Scheer's column in the Huffington Post

Here's the original op-ed piece:

Obama's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal