June 7, 2015

Rick Perry, along with his new smart glasses, is in Iowa to discuss his ideas for the economy, because Texas did so well under his leadership. He left the state in shambles with childhood poverty exceeding 25%. Today, the financial guru is talking Dodd-Frank, so we'd better listen.

The only problem, Perry isn't exactly sure what Dodd-Frank entails. It was designed to be a watchdog of the financial institutions and it protects consumers from predatory lending, risky investments and other essential protections that were designed to prevent another horrible recession like 2008. Maybe he should read this first.

Perry harbors the erroneous premise that it's Dodd-Frank that is preventing a bank's ability to lend money. Not true, because it protects customers from risky bank practices, and ensures the bank will loan money without trying to fleece customers. Here are a few of his reasons.

“Dodd-Frank's a great example it right here in Iowa. These bankers -- these small community banks are being strangled by regulations, and they can't loan money to their farmers or small businesses. That's just not right,” he said.

“If a bank makes bad decisions, they'll fail. Nobody ought to be too big to fail, and all these regulations did was codify in the law, and I'd certainly get rid of those,” he said.

You make a mistake, and you make bad choices, you need to pay a price in this country. I don't care who you are, or whether you're a big Wall Street firm, or you're a big bank. You know? That's what our bankruptcy laws are for.”

He doesn't realize that the impetus for Dodd-Frank was to make sure banks don't get too big to fail again, a safeguard against predatory lending that would help the average Iowan, not Wall Street.

President Obama's huge success in bailing out American auto manufacturers turned out exceptionally well, yet Perry wouldn't have lifted a finger to help the millions of people affected by a major industry failure. Perry claims to be a let the market decide kind of guy, which is exactly what caused the banks to grow into the behemoths they were in '08.

I wasn't for GM getting a restructure. They should have gone through bankruptcy just like everybody on Main Street would have been.

Perry doesn't grasp the significance of the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Act. Like Marco Rubio, who believes that the Iraq War was a good idea, Rick Perry is regurgitating the misinformation that lives inside the konservative klown kar. Oops!

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