CALPIRG Blog

Bank reform is so popular with the public, pollster Frank Luntz is telling Republicans to LIE and call the bank reform bill a bank bailout. Misleading ads are already running: watch the ad here. Read more about the Frank Luntz memo here.

In fact, the bill already passed by the House of Representative in December requires banks to pay back the money taxpayers gave them before they give themselves bonuses, enacts new regulations to prevent future bank bailouts, and creates a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The banks HATE this bill, especially the CFPA, and are spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying against it. If there wasn't so much on the line, I'd be laughing at the thought of the banks spending so much time and money lobbying against a bill that would bail them out.

Tell Chairman Chris Dodd bank reform is NOT a bailout here. 

Go here to watch Ed Mierzwinski, our federal Consumer Program Director and a 20-year veteran lobbyist on the hill, give a history of the current financial crisis and our plan of action.