{"id":568133,"date":"2010-05-18T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2010-05-18T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=84998"},"modified":"2010-05-18T06:00:19","modified_gmt":"2010-05-18T10:00:19","slug":"financial-reform-advocates-lobby-the-lobbyists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/568133","title":{"rendered":"Financial Reform Advocates Lobby the Lobbyists"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_84999\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/rally.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-84999\" title=\"rally\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/rally-480x324.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"324\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Showdown on K Street protesters in New York on Sunday (showdowninamerica.org)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>On Monday, with Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promising a final vote on  financial regulatory reform in the next few days, rather than weeks,  thousands descended on K Street in Washington, D.C., to lobby the  lobbyists.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2754\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2754\" title=\"debt\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/debt-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> The union giants SEIU and AFL-CIO as well as  community organizing umbrella group National People&#8217;s Action held a  &#8220;Showdown on K Street,&#8221; bringing around two thousand workers and  organizers to protest against big Wall Street banks, the lobbyists they  have hired to attempt to water down the Senate bill and continued  economic strife more generally. Indeed, the event ended up more of an  expression of sustained populist anger at the sour economy and banks&#8217;  $1.4 million-a-day lobbying effort than a protest against specific  practices or provisions in the bill.<\/p>\n<p>It started on Sunday when  more than a hundred activists protested on the front lawns of two  executives: Bank of America&#8217;s Gregory Baer, the company&#8217;s counsel for  regulatory policy, and Peter Scher, J.P. Morgan Chase&#8217;s executive for  government relations. At Baer&#8217;s home, NPA noted that Bank of America &#8212;  after requiring a $45 billion taxpayer bailout &#8212; has spent $16 million  lobbying against Sen. Chris Dodd&#8217;s (D-Conn.) regulatory reform bill.<\/p>\n<p>Adolfo  Abreu, an organizer for NPA who came down for the events from his home  in the Bronx, noted that Baer came home while organizers were occupying  his front doorstep, with one woman describing how Bank of America  continued to attempt to collect payment from her on a phone call 30  minutes after she learned of the death of her son. Abreu said that Baer  &#8220;started yelling at us, like, &#8216;Get out of here!&#8217;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These banks  are way too involved in the economy, and they have been way too involved  in protesting this bill,&#8221; Abreu said. &#8220;We are focusing on people, not  people with privilege. We need these rights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At  11 a.m. on Monday morning, dozens held a vocal protest outside of the  downtown offices of the Podesta Group, the powerful Democratic lobbying  shop headed by Tony Podesta, who worked in the Clinton administration  and has earned the left&#8217;s ire for lobbying against Democratic  priorities. Protesters shouted, &#8220;Tony Podesta is hurting America!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And  at noon, the protest started in full, with approximately 2,000  gathering in McPherson Square. They held bright hand-painted signs and  shut down traffic, as they did when protesting on Wall Street itself  last week. Joel Hershey, a middle-school science teacher in Syracuse,  N.Y., took to the microphone to fire the crowd up. He said he had taught  for four years, and three weeks ago heard that he &#8220;would not be going  back to school&#8221; &#8212; one victim of municipal layoffs due to budget  cutting. He noted that his wife and he are &#8220;just two of the 300,000  teachers that could lose their jobs in the next year&#8230;.devastating news  for America&#8217;s children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The crowd then marched to and occupied  the busy intersection at 14th and K Streets &#8212; &#8220;lobbyist central,&#8221; as  one SEIU volunteer put it. The protesters, soaked by pouring rain at  that point, had set up a 20-foot-tall paper-and-wood pulling the  marionette strings of Congress and passed around whistles and drums.<\/p>\n<p>Al  Marshall of Oakland, Calif., took to the loudspeaker as the protesters  engaged in a &#8220;sit in.&#8221; (The actual sitting part did not happen, with the  pavement soaked.) With tears rolling down his cheeks, the construction  inspector explained that he had purchased a &#8220;fixer-upper&#8221; but that he  and his wife had struggled to make payments to Wells Fargo after she  lost her job. The bank reclaimed the home as a foreclosure after  &#8220;laughing&#8221; at him when he asked for a loan modification. &#8220;There  shouldn&#8217;t be a homeless person anywhere in America,&#8221; Marshall said.<\/p>\n<p>Ed  Whalen, a member of the Sheet Metal Workers&#8217; International Association  Local 100 in Baltimore, affiliated with the AFL-CIO said he was there to  protest such &#8220;financial anarchy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The downturn has affected  everybody, but it has proportionately affected the construction industry  and my line of work because every part of the business relies on  financing,&#8221; Whalen said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no getting around it. I&#8217;m at a loss  for words to described what&#8217;s wrong here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Later on, the protest  split up with smaller groups visiting the Hill and even interrupting  goings-on at local bank branches. SEIU protesters, for instance, flooded  a Bank of America branch on Capitol Hill, shouting &#8220;Bank of America &#8212;  Bad for America!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another group of 100 protesters &#8212; many part  of the Alliance to Develop Power, a Massachusetts group &#8212; showed up  unannounced at the Russell Senate Office Building offices of Sen. Scott  Brown (R-Mass.). The protesters complained that Brown had campaigned  against the Troubled Asset Relief Program and contended that he now  &#8220;does big banks&#8217; bidding in the Senate.&#8221; The protesters brought a &#8220;big  tent&#8221; into the cramped space (and then asked staffers &#8220;Who&#8217;s in your big  tent!&#8221;) and eventually convinced office members to arrange a meeting  between the senator and protesters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Showdown on K Street protesters in New York on Sunday (showdowninamerica.org) On Monday, with Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promising a final vote on financial regulatory reform in the next few days, rather than weeks, thousands descended on K Street in Washington, D.C., to lobby the lobbyists. Image by: Matt Mahurin Share The union giants SEIU [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568133","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\/6662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}