It turns out the the Graham- Leach -Bliley bill, which Barack Obama claims was an example of John McCain supporting financial deregulation, was not even voted on by John McCain. He didn’t vote on the bill at all. But, guess who did vote for this bill? Eighty nine other senators from both parties. And, in the House, the bill was supported by 210 Republicans and 151 Democrats. It was then signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
So, if you want to blame somebody for passing a financial deregulation bill, there’s plenty of blame to go around. I don’t necessarily think there’s anything inherently wrong with deregulation, and numerous industries function in a more efficient manner due to deregulation. But you can’t blame McCain for deregulation of the financial sector, which isn’t even responsible for the problems we’re having now anyway. Here’s a link to the Graham bill, and how the vote went. You’ll notice John McCain’s name didn’t vote.
First of all I agree with you point about deregulation but I do not quite agree with your assessment of Graham-Leach-Billey. This deregulation lifted the barrier of commercial and investment banking. Some intended for this to be a backdoor way to extend regulation to investment banking. Joe Biden voted for that repeal and Bill Clinton signed it into law. Actually I agree with this repeal. If this law was not repealed then Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch would have no buyers and would have gone totally bankrupt.
What is interesting is the lack of press attention for GSE (Government Sponsored Entities-Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) reform. Republicans were calling for regulation and reform while Democrats were pushing back. See Google link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
The real vote folks should be examining in the Senate is GSE reform. McCain voted for reform of these Government Sponsor Entities while Obama’s vote was typical – Present.