Schumer: Main St. or Wall St. Champion?

We get press releases from Senator Chuck Schumer all the time, and they usually deal with bread-n-butter – sometimes even minute or obscure – hometown issues. Rural economic development, the digital TV transition, sewer and water system overhauls, airport service for Ogdensburg, a new dam in Heuvelton, that sort of thing. He prides himself on being a Main Street guy.

But his home is New York City, and the center of his political power is Wall Street. Yesterday, the New York Times had a pretty bruising, front-page article on Schumer’s personal and fundraising ties to the financial giants who are now gobbling up the $900 billion bailout fund. His voting record shows a deep commitment to the deregulation and free market strategies that have us in the financial situation we are today. From the article…

Mr. Schumer…repeatedly took other steps to protect industry players from government oversight and tougher rules, a review of his record shows. Over the years, he has also helped save financial institutions billions of dollars in higher taxes or fees. He succeeded in limiting efforts to regulate credit-rating agencies, for example, sponsored legislation that cut fees paid by Wall Street firms to finance government oversight, pushed to allow banks to have lower capital reserves and called for the revision of regulations to make corporations’ balance sheets more transparent.

It’ll be interesting to watch how Schumer votes – and leverages his power on the Senate Banking and Finance Committees – as Congress works to reverse the economic tailspin.