MAIN STREET VS. WALL STREET:

 For nearly two years after a global financial crisis shook the world, progressives in Congress have been hard at work overhauling the nation's financial regulatory system to address the concerns of hard-working Americans. Progressives have fought hard to make the legislation as tough as possible, pushing for provisions that would rein in abusive practices by the credit card industry, stop financial institutions from "trading taxpayer money for their own profit," audit the Federal Reserve, and break up big banks so that they could never again grow large enough to endanger the world economy.


Meanwhile, conservatives like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have fought this financial reform legislation every step of the way, choosing to stand with the nation's biggest banks over working families. After legislators tried to create a special fund that banks would pay into to bail themselves out, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed the idea, falsely claiming it "institutionalizes" bailouts of Wall Street. Just a week before his statement, McConnell traveled to New York City for a fundraising meeting with "25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers," to enlist "Wall Street's help" in funding Republican campaigns in exchange for fighting financial reform legislation. While House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) banned one of his staff members from talking to an ex-staffer who became a lobbyist for Wall Street, conservatives laid out the red carpet for financial lobbyists. Last December, the House Republican leadership huddled with more than 100 financial industry lobbyists to craft their strategy for killing Wall Street reform.