pandering to wall street . . . again

This story by Jim B. Stewart in The New York Times deserves a close read.

The economy is still suffering from the worst financial crisis since the Depression, and widespread anger persists that financial institutions that caused it received bailouts of billions of taxpayer dollars and haven’t been held accountable for any wrongdoing. Yet the House Appropriations Committee has responded by starving the agency responsible for bringing financial wrongdoers to justice — while putting over $200 million that could otherwise have been spent on investigations and enforcement actions back into the pockets of Wall Street.

How is it putting over $200 million back into the pockets of Wall Street? Because, even though the Republican controlled appropriations committee report cited the Federal debt as a basis for cutting the SEC budget, the budget of the SEC is funded not by taxpayer money but from levied fees on those that the SEC regulates - which, of course, includes Wall Street. That means the over $200 cut from the budget stays in the pockets of the very people who were so instrumental in causing the current rescission. It's more Repub hocus pocus.