The first piece of legislation that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) introduced in the 112th Congress was H.R.87, which would repeal President Obama and Congressional Democrats' massive financial regulatory bill known as Dodd-Frank. The legislation is so simple and direct that it is the first time we can post the actual text of the bill in its entirety:
"The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Public Law 111-203) is repealed and the provisions of law amended by such Act are revived or restored as if such Act had not been enacted."
That's how you repeal terrible legislation! After introducing this bill, Rep. Bachmann issued the following statement:
"I'm pleased to offer a full repeal of the job-killing Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill. Dodd-Frank grossly expanded the federal government beyond its jurisdictional boundaries. It gave Washington bureaucrats the power to interpret and enforce the legislation with little oversight.
"Dodd-Frank also failed to address the taxpayer-funded liabilities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Real financial regulatory reform must deal with these lenders who were a leading cause of our economic recession. True reform must also end the bailout mindset that was perpetuated by the last Congress. I am proud to work towards repeal of Dodd-Frank because Congress must protect the taxpayers, instead of handing out favors to Wall Street."
Conservatives across the country have spoken out against the regulatory stranglehold that Dodd-Frank creates on the financial industry, which is why Heritage Action supported an amendment to the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011. Both Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth have come out in favor of Rep. Bachmann's bill.
Predictably, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who helped write the bill, released a statement decrying Rep. Bachmann's legislation:
"Michele Bachmann, the Club for Growth, and others in the right-wing coalition have now made their agenda for the financial sector very clear: they yearn to return to the thrilling days of yesteryear, so the loan arrangers can ride again - untrammeled by any rules restraining irresponsibility, excess, deception, and most of all, infinite leverage.
"Their effort to repeal the new financial reform law reveals the hypocrisy of right-wing claims that they are concerned with ending uncertainty in the economy. Now that we have put in place a set of rules that allow financial markets to function but which also curb their excesses, Representative Bachmann and her allies want to reintroduce uncertainty by going back to exactly the situation that led to the financial crisis in the first place..."
Of course, Rep. Frank fails to realize that the 2,300 bill he drafted does nothing to fix one of the underlying causes of the 2008 meltdown; namely, that the government forced banks to give loans to people who couldn't afford them. Dodd-Frank gives the government even more control over the banks - it codified "too big to fail." If they created the problem, how can we trust them to fix it?
Rep. Bachmann introduced her repeal bill on the first day of the new Congress, showing just how strongly she is committed to removing this destructive law from our books.