To the Editor:

Carol Shea-Porter

Carol Shea Porter has once again voted for the people in her District. Whether you are a Tea Party member, or a member of Occupy Wall Street, you will remember that the big investment banks who crashed the economy back in 2008 did it with something called credit default swaps, or derivatives. You also will remember that no one from the top level of any of those bank has been punished.

The Dodd-Frank bill was adopted to supposedly reform the system. It did include some weak regulation for the credit default swaps. It said that if the banks lost money, because they played roulette with credit default swaps and derivatives, they could not get bailed out by the government.

This past month HB 992 came to the floor of the US House of Representatives. It was called the Regulatory Swap Improvement Act. The improvement was to say that banks losing money playing this game could be bailed out after all. It favored the big banks at the expense of taxpayers. It had bipartisan support, which should tell us that “bipartisan” does not necessarily mean something good for the country.

Carol Shea Porter voted against this bill. She does not take money from big out-of-state donors or economic PACS. That’s one reason why, even if you do not agree with her on an issue, you know she is thinking of the people in her District when she votes. That makes her very unusual in the U.S. Congress. We should value that independence.

Emmanuel Krasner, Esquire
Farmington

Printed in the Rochester Times, Letters to the Editor, November 28, 2013
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131128/GJOPINION04/131129359/-1/ROCTIMES

Image Credit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Shea-Porter