FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: June 29, 2010

AFR Debunks Latest Republican Talking Point

Bill Would Make Banks Pay to Clean Up Their Messes

Washington, DC – As Congress stands ready to enact important reforms to hold Wall Street accountable for the financial crisis and restore economic stability, some Senate Republicans are making one last ditch effort to protect their friends, the big banks, by opposing something the vast majority of us support – a requirement that the banks themselves pay to clean up their mess.

Heather Booth, Director, Americans for Financial Reform: “Opponents of real Wall Street accountability have been grasping at straws for months trying to come up with a way to side with the big banks, vote against real reform and then somehow convince the public that they did it for – as BP executives would say ‘the small people.’ This latest talking point claiming it hurts the rest of us for the big banks to pay for even a small part of the mess they made is yet another desperate attempt to twist reality and protect the big banks and their big bonuses. Bank bonuses last year topped more than $20 billion. If that kind of money if is good enough to reward the people who got us into this mess, then it’s good enough to clean up the mess they made. “