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So something truly insane just happened in the house of representatives and in order
to really understand this insanity we have to take an unpleasant but mercifully brief
trip down memory lane. One of the biggest moments of the 2008 financial crisis fun times
was the near collapse and eventually bailout of company called AIG. And the risky behavior
that pushed AIG to the brink and actually forced the taxpayers to bail their sweet ***
out to the tune of 85 billion dollars was a financial instrument known as diriva diriv
derivatives trading. Since there's not enough time to explain or apparently learn how to
pronounce derivatives in this video I'll link some sources for you in the description. The
important thing to remember is that nobody, from Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party was
thrilled with the idea that the taxpayer should be on the hook every time Wall Street gambles
itself into a corner. So in 2010 when Congress decided to pass a new set of financial regulations
known as Dodd-Frank they included a provision that basically said, "You can't get a bail-out
for certain kinds of derivatives. Just certain kinds. Not even all of them... And this brings
up back to insanity that I was talking about all the way one-minute ago. Because the House
of Representatives just passed a bill that would get rid of this "No Bail-Outs for derivatives
rule." This didn't happen because of some massive public demand. Most Americans haven't
even heard of derivatives trading. Let alone ask their Congressman to deregulate it. This
happened because Big Banks wrote this bill. Literally... That not some cute turn of phrase
or any exaggeration. 70 of 85 lines in this bill reflect recommendations made in a piece
of model legislation written by lobbyists for CitiGroup. Another bank that played a
major role in the 2008 financial crisis, and also required millions of Federal Stimulus
dollars in return for not blowing up the world economy. Two crucial paragraphs in the bill
the House eventually passed were copied almost word for word from the CitiGroup version.
It's the congressional equivalent of copying a term paper from Wikipedia, if Wikipedia
was also paying your tuition. Members of the House received $22.4 million dollars in campaign
contributions from interest groups in support of this bill. That nearly 6 times more than
they received from interest groups apposed. Contribution data also shows that donors with
Wall Street ties are major sources of campaign funding for the bill sponsor, and 6 of the
8 co-sponsors. Then there's House Financial Services Chair, Jeb Henserling. Sarlinggg...
Whatever. He's the guy who helped whisk the bill through the Committee, and I swear this
is true, spent a posh weekend partying it up with Wall Street lobbyists in Park City,
Utah. On a ski vacation. They GO SKIING TOGETHER! I could go on about how Wall Street spent
$50 million dollars on lobbying expenditures in 2013 alone. Or how one of the co-sponsors
of this bill, Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, used to work on Wall Street as
an executive for Goldman Sachs. But I think most of you are already noticing a theme developing
here. At a time when economic growth is still stagnant and there's issues to deal with from
the National Debt to the fact that 1 in 5 children in this country are still born into
poverty. Your intrepid Congressman are instead working on THIS. Your House of Representatives
just passed a bill designed to roll back protections put in place after the last financial crisis
that was literally written by lobbyists for the people who caused the last financial crisis.
This bill was sponsored by a bi-partisan group. 5 Republicans and 4 Democrats and all of them
depend on Wall Street to fund their campaign. Journalists and pundits may continue to dance
around the issue with euphemisms like "Insider Culture," or "influence peddling." But, this
wholesale purchase of the legislative process by special interests, reveals a much more
urgent truth. Our government has become a place where fundraising takes precedent over
the public good. Our government feels more accountable to those who bankroll it's members
than the people who it is elected to represent. Our government is corrupt. And it's time we
did something about it. My name is Mansur Gidfar, I'm the communications director for
an anti-corruption organization called Represent.Us. We're building a movement behind a proposal
called the American Anti-Corruption Act that would make this kind of crap Illegal. Because
the truth is what we face as a nation goes beyond problems of "Money in Politics" or
a need for campaign finance reform. It's corruption, and we're going to stop it.