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Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2016/Banking policy
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 Bernie Sanders |
U.S. Senator (Assumed office: 2007) U.S. Representative (1991-2007) |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 |
This page was current as of the 2016 election.
| CANDIDATE SUMMARY | |
- Bernie Sanders announced on June 2, 2016, that he would be introducing an alternative bill to address the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. According to Fortune, “His bill would allow the Federal Reserve to give the territory emergency loans and provide broad bankruptcy protections, unlike legislation approved by a House committee last week that would create a control board to oversee limited debt restructuring. Sanders’ bill would also boost Medicaid and Medicare payments to the island and designate $10.8 billion to rebuild the territory’s crumbling infrastructure.”[2]
- During the fourth Democratic presidential primary debate on January 17, 2016, Bernie Sanders discussed the difference between his banking reform plan and Hillary Clinton’s: “Well, the first difference is I don't take money from big banks. I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs. What I would do...What I would do is understand that when you have three out of the four largest banks today, bigger than they were when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail, when you have the six largest financial institutions having assets of 60 percent of the GDP of America, it is very clear to me what you have to do. You've got to bring back the 21st century Glass-Steagall legislation and you've got to break up these huge financial institutions. They have too much economic power and they have too much financial power over our entire economy. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, the old Republican trust buster, what he would say is these guys are too powerful. Break them up. I believe that's what the American people to want see. That's my view.”[3]
- On January 12, 2016, Sanders voted in favor Rand Paul’s proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, which failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward. In a statement he said, "Requiring the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full and independent audit of the Fed each and every year, would be an important step towards making the Federal Reserve a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans rather than the billionaires on Wall Street.”[4]
- In a January 5, 2016, Wall Street reform policy speech in New York City, Sanders pledged to dismantle the nation's largest financial institutions in his first year in office, the Associated Press reported. Sanders would create a list of companies in the first 100 days of his administration whose failure would pose a significant risk to the U.S. economy without a taxpayer bailout, the AP said. He would force the banks and insurance companies to reorganize within a year.[5] Sanders’ proposal also included: enforcing stricter regulations on banks; capping “automated teller machine fees at $2 a transaction;” limiting credit card interest rates; allowing post offices to “engage in basic banking services; and overhauling “the Federal Reserve by eliminating the central bank’s ‘internal conflicts of interest’ and providing stricter oversight.”[6] In his prepared remarks for the event, Sanders said, “To those on Wall Street who may be listening today, let me be very clear. Greed is not good. Wall Street and corporate greed is [sic] destroying the fabric of our nation. And, here is a New Year’s Resolution that we will keep: If you do not end your greed we will end it for you.”[7]
- Sanders wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on December 23, 2015, calling for reform of the Federal Reserve. “We would not tolerate the head of Exxon Mobil running the Environmental Protection Agency. We don’t allow the Federal Communications Commission to be dominated by Verizon executives. And we should not allow big bank executives to serve on the boards of the main agency in charge of regulating financial institutions,” Sanders wrote. He also recommended prohibiting “commercial banks from gambling with the bank deposits of the American people” and increasing loans to “creditworthy small businesses and consumers.”[8]
- Sanders criticized the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates on December 16, 2015. He said, “When millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates is bad news for working families. At a time when real unemployment is nearly 10 percent and youth unemployment is off the charts, we need to do everything possible to create millions of good-paying jobs and raise the wages of the American people. The Fed should act with the same sense of urgency to rebuild the disappearing middle class as it did to bail out Wall Street banks seven years ago.”[9]
- In July 2015, Sanders co-sponsored S 1709 - 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act of 2015, a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.[10]
- Sanders co-sponsored S 410 - Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act in February 2013 with U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). It sought to impose an excise tax on the purchases of certain securities.[11]
- In November 2009, Sanders introduced S 2746 - Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, which would require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide Congress with "a list of all commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies that the Secretary believes are too big to fail" and to break up the entities on the list "so that their failure would no longer cause a catastrophic effect on the United States or global economy without a taxpayer bailout."[12] He said in a statement, "We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down the entire economy. We should end the concentration of ownership that has resulted in just four huge financial institutions holding half the mortgages in America, controlling two-thirds of the credit cards, and amassing 40 percent of all deposits."[13] In April 2013 and May 2015, Sanders introduced new versions of this bill.[14][15]
- Sanders opposed bank consolidation and the deregulation of the financial industry in July 1999. While speaking against HR 10 - Financial Services Act of 1999 in the House of Representatives, Sanders said, "I support financial modernization if modernization means more choices for consumers, more competition, greater safety and soundness, stopping unfair bank fees and protecting consumers and underserved communities. ... I believe this legislation in its current form will do more harm than good. It will lead to fewer banks and financial service providers, increased charges in fees for individual consumers and small businesses, diminish credit for rural America and taxpayer exposure to potential loses should a financial conglomerate fail. It will lead to more megamergers, a small number of corporations dominating the financial service industry and further concentration of economic power in this country."[16]
Recent news
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ VPR, "Bernie Sanders Is Streaming His Presidential Announcement On Periscope," April 30, 2015
- ↑ Fortune, "Bernie Sanders Says He's Got a Plan to Save Puerto Rico," June 2, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "The 4th Democratic debate transcript, annotated: Who said what and what it meant," January 17, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Senate rejects Paul’s push to audit the Fed," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Associated Press, "Sanders vowing to break up banks during first year in office," January 5, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "Bernie Sanders Attacks Hillary Clinton Over Regulating Wall Street," January 5, 2016
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal, "Bernie Sanders to Tell Wall Street: ‘Greed Is Not Good’," January 4, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "Bernie Sanders: To Rein In Wall Street, Fix the Fed," December 23, 2015
- ↑ Business Insider, "Bernie Sanders slams the Fed's decision to hike rates," December 16, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.1709 - 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act of 2015," July 7, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.410 - Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act," February 28, 2013
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.2746 - Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act," November 5, 2009
- ↑ U.S. Senator for Vermont, Bernie Sanders, "Press Release: Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist," November 6, 2009
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.685 - Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act," April 9, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.1206 - Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Exist Act," May 6, 2015
- ↑ Senate Budget Committee, "Sanders Warned Against Bank Consolidation Back in 1999," July 17, 2015
