{"id":243913,"date":"2010-01-28T18:23:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T23:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/economics\/2010\/01\/28\/the-no-voters-weigh-in-on-bernanke\/"},"modified":"2010-01-28T18:23:57","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T23:23:57","slug":"the-%e2%80%98no%e2%80%99-voters-weigh-in-on-bernanke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/243913","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018No\u2019 Voters Weigh In on Bernanke"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week ago, Ben Bernanke<\/strong>\u0092s confirmation appeared in doubt. But after some strong lobbying from the Obama White House, less than a quarter of the Senate voted against the Federal Reserve chairman in the key procedural vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (Reuters)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Among the 23 senators who sought to block a vote on the confirmation were five Democrats and one independent who usually sides with Democrats, and 17 Republicans. That group included a couple of senators facing tough re-election fights this year, such as Sen. Arlen Specter<\/strong> (D., Pa.), as well as outspoken Fed critics Jim Bunning<\/strong> (R., Ky.) and Bernie Sanders<\/strong> (I., Vt.). (See a full tally of how senators voted.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u0093A vote for Ben Bernanke is a vote for bailouts,\u0094 Sen. Bunning said on the Senate floor. \u0093If you want to put an end to bailouts and send a message to Wall Street, this vote is your chance.\u0094<\/p>\n

Election-year politics and deeply held antipathy to the Fed weren\u0092t the only factors driving senators to oppose a second term for Mr. Bernanke, who won confirmation four years ago on a voice vote.<\/p>\n

Some \u0093no\u0094 voters cited concerns about the Fed chairman\u0092s track record on regulation ahead of the crisis, an area in which even Mr. Bernanke has acknowledged the Fed\u0092s shortcomings. Others criticized his response to the financial crisis, with some liberals charging he didn\u0092t do enough for Main Street and some conservatives saying the Fed is sowing the seeds of the next crisis.<\/p>\n

\u0093The Fed chairman has to realize the urgency with which the big banks have been saved and bailed out,\u0094 Sen. Maria Cantwell<\/strong> (D., Wash.) \u0093That urgency has to be applied to Main Street.\u0094<\/p>\n

After the procedural vote, the Senate voted 70-30 to confirm Mr. Bernanke. Some of the seven senators who switched explained they didn\u0092t want to stand in the way of President Barack Obama<\/strong>\u0092s nominee, but wanted to show disapproval of Mr. Bernanke\u0092s tenure. Among those were Sen. Barbara Boxer<\/strong> (D., Calif.), who faces a tough re-election race, and Sen. Byron Dorgan<\/strong> (D., N.D.), who is retiring.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dorgan said he wanted to highlight what he called a \u0093bright line in America between those who are too big to fail and those who are too small to matter.\u0094<\/p>\n

\u0093The biggest financial institutions were engaged in wholesale gambling,\u0094 Mr. Dorgan said. \u0093They run their company and their country into the ground. They are told, \u0091Well you know what? You\u0092re so big we can\u0092t possibly let you fail, so we\u0092re going to give you a big bailout.\u0092\u0094<\/p>\n

Senators who aren\u0092t seeking re-election mainly backed a second term for Mr. Bernanke, including Christopher Bond<\/strong> (R., Mo.), Roland Burris<\/strong>, (D., Ill.), Christopher Dodd<\/strong> (D., Conn.), Judd Gregg<\/strong>, (R., N.H.), and George Voinovich <\/strong>(R., Ohio). But three — Sens. Bunning and Dorgan and Sen. Edward Kaufman<\/strong> (D., Del.) opposed him.<\/p>\n

Several senators said they expected Mr. Bernanke to notice the strength of the opposition. \u0093After what I can imagine has been a pretty harrowing experience for the Fed chairman, my guess is he\u0092s going to redouble his efforts to make sure that the Fed is in a position of strength,\u0094 said Sen. Bob Corker<\/strong> (R., Tenn.), who supported the nomination. \u0093I\u0092ve got to believe after all of this, the Fed is going to conduct itself at a better level, at a higher level, than in the past.\u0094<\/p>\n

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A week ago, Ben Bernanke\u0092s confirmation appeared in doubt. But after some strong lobbying from the Obama White House, less than a quarter of the Senate voted against the Federal Reserve chairman in the key procedural vote. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (Reuters) Among the 23 senators who sought to block a vote on the confirmation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}