Did you enjoy the Recession of 2008? Want to have another? Do you like the way predatory lenders destroy poor minority communities? Wish there was more of that?
Republicans in Congress have been working vigorously the past two years to help their financial industry donors (banks, payday lenders, hedge funds, private equity investment firms, etc.) to loosen regulations and roll back the Dodd-Frank financial reforms. The Republican Congress has not been able to pass any legislation that would actually help ordinary Americans, but it has passed dozens of bills that would enrich their sugardaddies in the financial industry.
A group of volunteers has created the Wall Street Flunkies project to highlight their shenanigans. The project has created a set of fact-and-figure-filled dossiers plus downloadable flyers and social media info-graphics on 32 vulnerable Republican incumbents, including all of the Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee. These show how much Wall Street money the Flunkies have collected from the financial industry, who gave it to them, and the ugly favors they've dispensed in return. They show all the ways in which the 13 Major Flunkies (a “Banker’s Dozen”) and 19 Minor Flunkies have made it easier for banks, payday lenders, hedge funds, and private equity firms, etc. to enrich themselves or make self-serving bets, with little or no thought given to the effects on consumers, borrowers, investors, racial or economic justice, or the stability, transparency, and accountability of the overall financial system and economy.
Across party lines, the great majority of Americans (69% according to a recent survey commissioned by the Koch Brothers) support tougher regulation of the financial industry. According to another recent poll (by NBC and the Wall Street Journal), voters rank “reducing the influence of special interests and corruption in Washington” just one point behind the economy as the most important election issue. Democrats already had a nine-pointadvantage on this issue before the New York Times' published its expose of the Trump family's tax fraud. “If progressives crystalize the frustration with corruption into a powerful closing critique of out of touch Republicans,” the pollster Stan Greenberg argues, “then they can push their advantage to its most politically destructive potential.”
Check out WallStreetFlunkies.org and then please spread the word.
Here are the Major Flunkies (alphabetical by district):
French Hill (AR-02)
Mimi Walters (CA-45)
Peter Roskam (IL-06)
Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
Trey Hollingsworth (IN-09)
Kevin Yoder (KS-03)
Andy Barr (KY-06)
Bruce Poliquin (ME-02)
Erik Paulsen (MN-03)
Tom MacArthur (NJ-03)
Keith J. Rothfus (PA-17)
Mia Love (UT-04)
Cathy McMorris Rogers (WA-05)
The Minor Flunkies:
Scott Tipton (CO-03)
Bill Posey (FL-08)
Barry Loudermilk (GA-11)
Bill Huizenga (MI-02)
Tom Emmer (MN-06)
Ann Wagner (MO-02)
Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03)
Patrick T. McHenry (NC-10)
Ted Budd (NC-13)
Lee M. Zeldin (NY-01)
Peter T. King (NY-02)
Claudia Tenney (NY-22)
Warren Davidson (OH-08)
Steve Stivers (OH-15)
Frank D. Lucas (OK-03)
David Kustoff (TN-08)
Roger Williams (TX-25)
Sean P. Duffy (WI-07)
Alex Mooney (WV-02)
You can donate to some or all of the Democratic opponents of these 32 Wall Street Flunkies through ActBlue.