Oppose H.R. 4173, the Frank-Dodd Financial "Reform" Bill

The Senate will vote on the Frank-Dodd financial “reform” bill (H.R. 4173) this week and possibly as soon as today. Although it has the votes to pass, it doesn’t yet have the 60 votes needed to break a filuster.

This bill will only strangle our already-ailing economy, and will do nothing to prevent future financial collapses or bailouts. Please tell your Senators to support the filibuster and oppose Frank-Dodd through our Reduce Regulations campaign.

You may freely use this letter, or modify it to reflect your stance on the topic:

Dear Senator,

Reducing regulations would be the best reform of our financial system. The Dodd-Frank bill will only create powerful new armies of regulators who won’t actually reform anything.

As David C. John and James L. Gattuso of the Heritage Foundation point out, ¹

• At 2,300 pages, none of you will have read the bill or know what, exactly, is in it
• The bill empowers regulators to seize private property and “wind down” firms they, and they alone, judge to be “failing”
• A Committee to guard against “systemic risk” won’t possibly possess all the knowledge to do their job, and will only discourage and stifle innovation
• The Consumer Protection bureau will reduce the number of options and choices of informed, responsible customers
• The new bureau will also issue supposedly “consumer-friendly” regulations that will conflict with the goal of other regulators of protecting the safety and soundness of financial firms
• By abolishing retail debit card fees (a practice that had nothing to do with the crisis), banks will be forced to raise revenue other ways such as eliminating free checking (and some banks have already begun to do this)
• The bill does nothing to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two firms that played a huge role in causing the financial crises – which makes future bailouts probable

It gets worse:

• A provision to audit the Federal Reserve was gutted in the final bill
• Section 342 seems to require quotas for women and minorities for government agencies and contractors, as if current laws and current departmental civil rights enforcers weren’t enough ²
• I don’t see how this bill provides ANY benefit to me or to the nation. Instead of reforming our financial system, it just empowers politicians and bureaucrats to reward your friends and punish your enenemies.

A REAL reform bill would:

• require greater accountability in the market by forcing even large firms to face the threat of bankruptcy
• abolish “government sponsored enterprises” like Fannie and Freddie
• provide a real and thorough audit of the Fed, whose decisions did so much to cause the crisis

Therefore:

1. Please introduce real reform that would unleash our over-regulated economy.
2. And I must insist that you oppose H.R. 4173.

Your timely response is appreciated.

Cordially,

(your name here)