Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi waxed apocalyptic about the omnibus bill in the moments before its passage by the House, declaring herself “heartbroken” over the “taint” of a Dodd-Frank rider, calling the vote “blackmail” by the finance community and slamming the White House for tacitly supporting the bill’s passage.
“I was heartbroken — I don’t think I’ve ever used that word on the floor of the House — heartbroken to see the taint that was placed on this valuable appropriations bill from on high,” she said Thursday, describing a rider rolling back some restrictions on financial derivatives trading.
“So here we are in the House, being blackmailed! Being blackmailed to vote for an appropriations bill,” she later said, declaring she would not put “the name of [her] constituents and [her] district next to a bill that does, as the president says, weaken a critical component of financial system reform . . . This is a moral hazard!”
Pelosi also took a shot at the Obama administration. “I’m enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this,” she said.
Fifty-seven Democrats ignored the leader’s protestations and voted for the bill, which passed 219 to 206 and averted a government shutdown.
Comments