Obama Savors Chance at Another Legislative Win with Wall St. Reform

It's the sweet prospect of another legislative victory that President Obama was savoring in a bright & sunny Rose Garden this afternoon.

With the help of a three Republicans, the Senate's Democratic majority successfully invoked cloture with a 60-40 vote and can now bring the Wall Street reform bill Mr. Obama wants up for a final debate and vote.

The measure was his next top legislative priority after signing his health care bill into law on March 23, and he views today's development as an important political win.

"Over the last year, the financial industry has repeatedly tried to end this reform with hordes of lobbyists and millions of dollar in ads," said Mr. Obama. "Today, I think it's fair to say that these efforts have failed."

But it's still way too soon to schedule a bill signing ceremony. The Senate measure will have to be reconciled with the version passed last year by the House.

"And there's no doubt that during that time, the financial industry and their lobbyists will keep on fighting," said Mr. Obama, bracing for the next phase in the battle.

The president blames the recession, in large part, on a "lack of responsibility and accountability" from Wall Street to Washington. He believes the provisions of this massive overhaul bill will put safeguards in place to prevent a recurrence.

"Our goal is not to punish the banks, but to protect the larger economy and the American people from the kind of upheavals that we've seen in the past few years," he said today in his eight-minute statement in the Rose Garden.

And today - Mr. Obama declared flat out that if the bill he wants is enacted, never again will taxpayers be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes.

"There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts - period."

Mr. Obama said he knows how unpopular those bailouts have been, even though he credits them with saving the economy from a plunge into another Great Depression.

"If a large financial institution should ever fail, we will have the tools to wind it down without endangering the broader economy," said Mr. Obama today.

And he said there'll be new rules to prevent financial institutions from becoming "too big to fail" in the first place, so as to avoid another AIG, the insurance company that received over $180-billion in federal bailout funds.

He asserts that Wall Street reform will bring "greater security to folks on Main Street" - to families who are looking to buy their first car or their first home.

It's rare that a Senate cloture vote is enough to bring the president into the Rose Garden to trumpet the development, especially since the bill is still far from ready for his signature.

But compared to dealing with a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico now in its 31st day, the cloture vote didn't kill any fish, soil any shoreline, or turn some of the waters of the Gulf muddy-brown.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

[stn_sage]

This is bogus! It wasn't a lack of regulation that caused this mess!
It was a lack of enforcement of the existing law!
Until the people in-charge, in positions of authority in America, the politicians, the regulators, the auditors, the judges, and the lawyers, start doing their jobs, NO amount of regulation is going to fix problems!

As long as they 'turn a blind eye' to what's going on, 'with a hand out',
the system will stay corrupt, and get worse!

SO, is this a legislative VICTORY! Hardly! Only a fool would believe that! Clean up govt, vote out incumbents in November!

[stn_sage]

Please reread my comment! My focus was on corruption in the system.
I never addressed legislative action designed to make lawlessness easier, OK?!
I AGREE WITH YOU, the Bush administration and Congress tried at every opportunity to lessen control & regulation over the financial markets!
Read more carefully, before you accuse me of something that is irrelevant to what I'm talking about and refrain from unnecessarily attacking me.

[tsigili]

One more win for the dictator. Savor it now, as November is closing in on you.

[jgg000101]

this is pure hot air. he hasn't done squat. nothing has happened and they are presenting this as a "victory"??? what a freaken joke. this moron is so desperate to have something positive to spin in light of all the bad things swirling around him that he has to create a pure puff pastry publicity piece to make it look like he's succeeding on something. I can't believe the nerve, and that he thinks people are that stupid. Hey, obama, tell us when something actually happens.
Like new jobs. Like the oil leak stopping. Like when iran gives up their nuclear ambitions. Like when iraq is under control. or like when you are actually bringing troops home. Or like when you actually close gitmo.

I love this paragraph...

But it's still way too soon to schedule a bill signing ceremony. The Senate measure will have to be reconciled with the version passed last year by the House. "And there's no doubt that during that time, the financial industry and their lobbyists will keep on fighting," said Mr. Obama, bracing for the next phase in the battle.

He hasn't done squat. This is like announcing a team on your baseball schedule and declaring a win before you've evn played the game.

[OlHarl]

Um your morning amphetamines peaking too soon? Ease up. Most readers probably know that we have a bicameral legislature in this country, and this isn't a done deal. Most people know that legislation gets diluted and gerrymandered because of lobbyists. You are a wanker throwing mud. Bring the conversation up a level please; CBS give us a smart moderating system so junk like this gets pushed down.

[retm-w]

What a joke they're letting some of the biggest loan scam artist's,(Auto Dealers) out of the legislation. They are so low they scam military members, and these senators are going to let them keep getting away with it