Daily Kos: Massachusetts Democrats seeking information on Scott Brown and JPMorgan Chase
After his upset election in January 2009, he became the key vote on the bill and leveraged that position to extract big concessions favored by banks, who had given generously to his campaign. First, Brown forced Democrats to strip from the bill a $19 billion bank tax. He also successfully pushed to water down a key reform -- the so-called 'Volcker rule' -- that was aimed at preventing banks from making risky trades with dollars backed by the government. The carve out helped large mutual funds in his state. In fact, Brown initially opposed the entire Wall Street reform bill and threatened to join the Republican filibuster of the legislation, which would have prevented it from even getting an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. Meanwhile, as 'Brown and his Senate staff were working both publicly and behind the scenes to scuttle' these reforms, the senator took in $140,000 from financial firms -- 400 percent more than the average received by other GOP senators over the same time period -- according to the Boston Globe. A ThinkProgress analysis revealed that during his campaign, banks and their allies gave Brown's campaign huge 11th hour contributions and helped with a significant get-out-the-vote effort. He was also supported by outside groups friendly to Wall Street like the Club for Growth. Overall, the financial industry is Brown's second largest contributor." [ThinkProgress, "After Helping Banks Water Down Dodd-Frank, Scott Brown Tries To Claim He's A Wall Street Reformer," 9/13/11]
Full Story here: http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2012/05/daily-kos-massachusetts-democrats.html
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