Financial safety

Congress wants to gut Dodd-Frank banking regulations, a decade after a global meltdown

Congressional lawmakers are priming a gift for Wall Street banks and the private financial sector, as more than a dozen centrist Democrats are expected to help Republicans deliver a significant blow to Dodd-Frank.

A procedural vote to scale back banking regulations is set for this Tuesday in the Senate, only 10 years after the Great Recession — caused by some of the regulations that Dodd-Frank hoped to address. The Senate plan is staunchly supported by the Trump administration — and all signs point towards it becoming law.

The issue exposes both the rifts within the Democratic Party and the extent to which the Trump administration is unashamed, as President Donald Trump's entire campaign was built on the premise that he was an outsider who would drain the swamp.

Many centrist Senate Democrats are at odds with progressives and are looking to show bipartisanship as they are faced with reelection this year. In their opinion, they have supported the bill on the grounds it will provide relief to smaller banks that have been over-regulated.

"The Main Street banks, community banks and credit unions didn’t create the crisis in 2008, and they were getting heavily regulated," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., told the Post. "There’s not one thing in this bill that gives Wall Street a break."