Opinion by Sen. Jon Tester
Published in the Billings Gazette
March 21, 2010

You’ve probably already seen the ads on TV or heard them on the radio. Out-of-state groups are shelling out millions to sway your opinion on a very important bill I’m working on in the Senate Banking Committee — a bill that finally ends the era of “too big to fail” on Wall Street.

I can see why some folks with a lot of money to burn don’t want this bill to pass. They don’t want it to pass because it finally puts referees on Wall Street. And without refs on Wall Street, business has been brisk for a handful of well-off Americans.

But our entire economy almost collapsed a year and a half ago because there were no referees on Wall Street. And sadly, hardworking, honest taxpayers — and our entire economy — paid the price.

Good bipartisan ideas

The bailouts President Bush asked for in 2008 weren’t the answer. That’s why I voted against both of them.

The best way to fix this problem — and to prevent it from happening again — is to rewrite the rules, to require big banks and huge financial institutions to play by those rules. And to take “too big to fail” out of the equation.

The Wall Street reform bill, which combines good ideas from Republicans and Democrats, does just that.

Read the rest of the op-ed here.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., serves on the Senate Banking Committee.