President Obama said Thursday that the Occupy Wall Street protests show a “broad-based frustration” among Americans about how the U.S. financial system works.
Speaking at an East Room news conference, Obama said he has monitored the movement, which has spread to dozens of cities nationwide.
“I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country … and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place,” he said.
Obama said he used “a lot of political capital” to prevent a financial meltdown and ensure banks remained solvent after he took office. He also touted the financial reform legislation he and Democrats in Congress moved through in 2010.
He criticized Republican presidential candidates whose economic plans, he claimed, gut those reforms.
“Not only did the financial sector, with the Republican Party in Congress, fight us every step in the way. But now you’ve got these same folks arguing we should roll back all those reforms and go back to the way it was,” Obama said. “That does not make sense to the American people. They are frustrated by it and they will continue to be frustrated by it until they get the sense that everyone is playing by the same rules.”
Obama used the opportunity to call on Congress to support his nominee to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, former Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray. The Senate Banking Committee approved his nomination Thursday, but his confirmation by the full Senate is in doubt because of a possible Republican filibuster.
(Source: LA Times)
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10 Responses
Finally obamas legions protecting him for reelection and creating a smoked red herring for more of his alarming policies
yes we are frustrated with you obama
Increasingly it seems to reflect the Labor Movement’s concerns over the possible loss of their excessive privileges and financial subsidies.
Those smelly vermin antisemite mamzayrim on Wall Street are nothing more than Obama’s Rent A Mob to begin with.
Proof is they follow the pied piper who instructed them to hate ‘big’ companies making evil profit instead of protesting on the front lawn of the White House.
Yemach Sh’mom!
This guy Obama makes me throw up! This whole mess is because of his horrible policies, which he refuses to change at all, and also because of this incitement against the “rich”. “He’s monitored the movement”. He’s encouraged the movement, because it takes some of the heat off of him. He’s just sickening.
I went to a few of these protests. Although I was probably the oldest one there, these “kids” are far more educated than I am and probably have better jobs too. I guess they like standing up for what they believe is right (or wrong as this case may be). It’s not going away anytime soon. I imagine that it will spread and that violence and looting will follow soon. Frustration breeds change and the looting isn’t so bad either.
come on, 10,000 kids protesting is not broad based!
Why doesn’t he, just blame Bush?
Wait, not speaking from a political standpoint, just from a logical one, does that make any sense? You passed reform, and now the people are screaming. So you assume it’s because people want to take it away, not because you passed it in the first place?
Yashrus, your numbers are not yashrus. In fact of the people who seem to know more about numbers than you, they say the number is 2000 at the most. I guess even Obama can’t get people to go to work for RentAmob Inc.