Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The Obama administration plans to unveil on Monday a new plan for dealing with troubled financial giants, said a senior U.S. lawmaker, who also mentioned potentially big changes for the insurance industry.

Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a chief architect of the financial regulation overhaul, declined on Friday to give details on the administration's new bill, which would give the government the power to dismantle large financial companies that get into crises.

The new draft bill is expected to take a tougher stance toward troubled financial firms than the administration's original plan, and may take out some language that would allow for temporary bailouts.

Giving the government "resolution authority" would serve as a rebuttal to the concept that some firms are too big to fail. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday highlighted the need for this authority as well as other measures to reduce the likelihood that one firm could destabilize the financial system. [ID:nN2394774]

Read the whole story: Reuters

President Obama is well aware of how the financial institutions been treating taxpayers now that they are back on their feet... at least they think they are back on their feet. Our economy is still on shaky ground and Wall Street is back to playing the same tricks that got us into this mess in the first place. They are bringing the economy back toward the edge of the precipice.  

Progressives are asking why he isn't doing it now? Why does he have to wait for another crisis?  I think that Obama really couldn't do anything this time because the crisis happened on Bush's watch and TARP was also passed on Bush's watch too.  On his watch, however, Obama is not going to be so generous.   I predict by the end of 2010, the U.S. will be in another financial crisis and those financial institutions which were deemed "too big to fail" will not be getting a bailout, they will be dismantled into smaller entities so they won't get into that position again.

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama mounted a frontal assault on the insurance industry on Saturday, accusing it of airing “deceptive and dishonest ads” to derail his health care legislation and threatening to strip the industry of its longstanding exemption from federal anti-trust laws.

In unusually harsh terms, Mr. Obama cast insurance companies as obstacles to change interested only in preserving their own “profits and bonuses” and willing to “bend the truth or break it” to stop his drive to remake the nation’s health care system. The president used his weekly radio and Internet address to push back against industry assertions that legislation will drive up premiums.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, ‘Take one of these, and call us in a decade.’ Well, not this time.”
Rather than trying to curb costs and help patients, he said the industry is busy “figuring out how to avoid covering people. And they’re earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exemption from our anti-trust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing.”

-snip-
He went on to attack other critics he described as tools of the industry. “Of course, like clockwork, we’ve seen folks on cable television who know better, waving these industry-funded studies in the air,” he said. “We’ve seen industry insiders — and their apologists — citing these studies as proof of claims that just aren’t true.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/us/politics/18address...

Barack Hussein Obama

Transcript:
 "Madame Speaker, I have words for Democrats and Republicans tonight."

     "Let's start with the Democrats"

     "We as a party have spent the last six months, the greatest minds in our party, dwelling on the question, the unbelievably consuming question of how to get Olympia Snowe to vote on health care reform. I want to remind us all that Olympia Snowe was not elected President last year. Olympia Snowe has no veto power in the Senate. Olympia Snowe represents a state with one half of one percent of America's population."

     "What America wants is health care reform. America doesn't care if it gets 51 votes in the Senate or 60 votes in the Senate or 83 votes in the Senate, in fact America doesn't even care about that, it doesn't care about that at all. What America cares about is this; there are over 1 million Americans who go broke every single year trying to pay their health care bills. America cares a lot about that. America cares about the fact that there are 44,780 Americans who die every single year on account of not having health care, that's 122 every day. America sure cares a lot about that. America cares about the fact that if you have a pre-existing condition, even if you have health insurance, it's not covered. America cares about that a lot. America cares about the fact that you can get all the health care you need as long as you don't need any. America cares about that a lot. But America does not care about procedures, processes, personalities, America doesn't care about that at all."

     "So we have to remember that as Democrats, we have to remember that what's at stake here is life and death, enormous amounts of money, and people are counting upon us to move ahead. America understands what's good for America. America cares about health care, America cares about jobs, America cares about education, about energy independance, America does not care about processes politicians or personalities or anything like that."

     "And I have a few words for my Republican friends tonight as well. I guess I do have some Republican friends."

     "Let me say this; last week I held up this report here and I pointed out that in America there are 44,789 Americans that die every year according to this Harvard report published in this peer reviewed journal because they have no health insurance. That's an extra 44,789 Americans who die who's lives could be saved, and their response was to ask me for an apology."

    "To ask me for an apology?"

    "That's right. To ask ME for an apology!"

    "Well, I'm telling you this; I will not apologize. I will not apologize. I will not apologize for a simple reason; America doesn't care about your feelings. I violated no rules by pulling this report to America's attention, I think a lot of people didn't know about it beforehand. But America DOES care about health care in America."

    "And if you're against it, then get out of the way. Just get out of the way. You can lead, you can follow or you can get out of the way. And I'm telling you now to get out of the way."
    "American understands that there is one party in this country that is favor of health care reform and one party that is against it, and they know why."

    "They understand that if Barack Obama were somehow able to cure hunger in the world the Republicans would blame him for overpopulation"

    "They understand that if Barack Obama could somehow bring about world peace they would blame him for destroying the defense industry."

    "In fact, they understand that if Barack Obama has a BLT sandwhich tommorrow for lunch, they will try to ban bacon."

    "But that's not what America wants, America wants solutions to it's problems and that begins with health care, and that's what I'm speaking for tonight."

     "I yield back the balance of my time"

From Daily Kos

At the very top of the show she announced:

We can report exclusively tonight, that two major power brokers on the left have told MSNBC that they are encouraging a Senate strategy now, in which the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform.

Who might these "major power brokers" be? Rahm? Reid?  Maddow wouldn't reveal her sources, but my judgment, having watched her show a lot, is that she's generally not the type to tease this sort of thing lightly. If she says she's got sources, she's got them. She goes on:

Regardless of how individual senators would vote ultimately on the bill, committee chairmen or subcommittee chairmen who allowed Republicans to force a 60-vote requirement for passing health care...under this type of strategy would be in danger of losing their chairmanships. Messing with chairmanships ain't a small thing in the Senate.

As Rachel put it:

That would be the Senate equivalent of busting a Lieutenant Colonel down to Private.

Her take on this?

This is cracking heads time in the Democratic Party right now. This is arm-twisting, vote-counting, "are you a real Dem" time for the proponents of health reform.

Could this actually be true? Could Senate Dems,  who have been spinless be prepared to remove committee chairmanships from any Dem who refused to oppose a Republican filibuster?