By threatening to withhold his vote for the final compromise, Massachusetts GOP U.S. Senator Scott Brown (l.) got the Democratic negotiators on the financial regulatory reform bill to delete a $19 billion fee on large financial institutions to cover costs of implementing the new law. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and a former counsel to the Fed Board of Governors, says the Dems missed the boat by labeling the charge a “tax,” making it vulnerable to read-meat ideological attacks.
“Pure and simple, their charge should be labeled for what it is — a return of the subsidy that taxpayers bestow on the too-big-to-fail banks every day by pledging to their creditors and depositors that if the big banks go bust we collectively will pick up the tab. Senator Brown would have a difficult time refuting this framing of the discussion.”
Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu
