Word: bill
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...committee would have agreed to pass it, if it could have survived the full Senate, if the Senate would have been able to work out its differences with the House in a conference, if the Senate and House would have been able to pass the resulting conference bill, or if Obama - whose aides have suggested they'd much prefer no bill (and a potentially powerful issue they could use to bash Republicans in the run-up to the midterm elections) to a weak bill - would have signed the compromise. And time was a serious factor; Congress probably needs to complete...
...fact, Dodd said Thursday that he's still optimistic about a consensus bill. He hinted that when he unveils his draft on Monday, it will reflect the compromises he's already made with Corker. But common sense, as well as leaks from their talks, suggest that those compromises - stripping the consumer agency of enforcement power, exempting payday lenders from new regulations, blocking any state regulations that are stricter than federal ones - would remove teeth from the bill. And perversely, that would make consensus - which is pretty unlikely anyway - just about impossible...
Dodd is right that he can't try to shimmy past a filibuster in an election year by cobbling together 59 Democrats and a Republican; it's probably hopeless, and certainly hopeless without cutting unsavory deals like the toxic Cornhusker Kickback on health care. But weakening the bill won't get him to 60 either; it will just alienate Democrats committed to reform in the House as well as the Senate, while most Republicans will still find some reason to oppose...
...only hope for consensus is a bill that takes an unmistakably tough line on Wall Street, which could end up striking a political chord and persuading recalcitrant Republicans and unenthusiastic Democrats that they have to support it if they don't want to look like Wall Street apologists. Again, this is not a likely scenario; the health care experience suggests that even preposterous attacks on complex legislation can provide cover for opponents, and Republicans are already starting to portray tougher financial rules as a new Wall Street bailout. But this is at least a plausible scenario; a Harris poll released...
...course, a tough bill would face long odds. The money and power of the financial industry would be arrayed against it. There would be so many arcane moving parts - How much authority for the Fed? Should end users be exempt from derivatives regulation? Should something be done about naked credit default swaps? - that reaching consensus by August would be challenging even if everyone wanted it. And it's not clear that anyone is desperate to have it; there probably won't be another meltdown this year, and Democratic leaders may be content to let Republicans block reform so they...