Treading Lightly

New York Times:

Senate Republicans are seeking on Friday to erect potential new obstacles to financial rule-writing at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation...

The Republican author of one financial amendment--Senator Susan Collins of Maine--argues that new financial rules should tread lightly on the fragile economy...

But consumer advocates predict a fallout for regulators, who are putting the finishing touches on dozens of new rules to rein in the derivatives market and proprietary trading...

"The costs of the financial crisis and benefits of avoiding the next one are crystal clear," said Amit Narang, a regulatory policy advocate at Public Citizen, a nonprofit government watchdog group. "Having financial regulators jump through more hoops will only further delay the process of making Wall Street accountable to the American public."

I can't believe we're still having this conversation.

Quote of the Day

Judicial workload expert Sen. Susan Collins, defending her filibuster of well-qualified judicial nominee Caitlin Halligan, who'd been tapped by President Obama to fill one of the four vacant seats on the 11-seat U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:

"My vote solely reflects my determination that this seat does not need to be filled by anyone."