–Senate Majority Leader Reid Sets Monday Evening Test Vote
–Sen. Reid: Wall Street Excess Caused ‘Great Recession’
–Sen. Reid: Must ‘Slam The Breaks on Wall Street’s Joyride’
–Sen. Schumer: Republican ‘Lies Are Not Taking Hold’

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid continued
Thursday to berate Wall Street banks and Senate Republican leaders on
financial regulatory reform and vowed to begin moving legislation within
days that represents “the strongest oversight ever over Wall Street.”

At a briefing with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Sen. Chuck
Schumer, Reid said he is moving ahead with financial regulatory reform
and has set a test vote for Monday evening at 5:15 p.m. ET on a motion
to formally take up the bill.

Reid said he will wait no longer to reach an agreement with Senate
Republicans, declaring “the games of stalling are over.”

“I’m not going to wait any more,” he said. “We have to get this
done,” he added.

Reid said that he hopes talks between Senate Banking Committee
Chairman Chris Dodd and Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on
the panel, will “bear fruit.”

“We still hope that can be worked out,” he said.

But Reid said he will wait no longer. He hammered Wall Street for
excesses that “caused” the “Great Recession of 2009 and 2010.

The Democratic bill, he said, would “slam the breaks on Wall
Street’s joyride.”

Reid and his leadership team intensified pressure and rhetorical
attacks on Senate Republicans.

Speaking in the Senate Radio and TV press gallery, Reid played
video clips of remarks by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl on regulatory reform.

He accused the two leaders of “polluting the debate with myths and
mischaracterizations.”

Schumer, going even further, accused GOP leaders of intentionally
distorting the legislation.

“These lies are not taking hold,” Schumer said.

The Senate Democratic leaders spoke an hour after a briefing by
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi said that Congress must “move forward” with a new financial
regulatory regime which provides for “common sense supervision” of
financial markets.

Pelosi leveled a biting critique of Wall Street, saying it was
“recklessness” in financial markets that took the U.S. to “the brink” of
an economic meltdown and caused a “deep, deep recession.”

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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