PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche: Glass-Steagall by July 3!
June 1, 2011 (EIRNS)—In a discussion with leading associates yesterday, Lyndon LaRouche laid out an urgent timetable for the unique action which must be taken in order to save the world economy from plunging into a New Dark Age, and removing President Obama from office: ramming Glass-Steagall legislation through the U.S. Congress. There's no room for "maybe" under the current circumstances of increasingly violent weather, and financial-economic breakdown, LaRouche argued. We have to get this done now.
Leaders within top-level political circles, and in constituency organizations throughout the United States must take this perspective immediately, LaRouche stressed. This is an era of command decisions, as in war—specifically, the kind of war which Franklin Delano Roosevelt waged against the Wall Street-British financiers who brought on the first Depression, and whom he fought to a standstill with Glass-Steagall and others of his New Deal measures. The "go along to get along" mentality in Congress must be broken now.
The Congressmen who have signed onto H.R. 1489, Rep. Marcy Kaptur's Glass-Steagall bill, represent significant clout which can help get a steamroller moving. At present, three of the Democrats are ranking members on three important committees, or their subcommittees: Financial Services, Rules, and Ways and Means. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) is the ranking member on the Rules Committee, which functions as an arm of the House Leadership. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is the chief deputy whip, and the ranking member on the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and GSEs. And Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) is the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee's Trade Subcommittee.
EIR is aware that Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner has been deploying to try to prevent additional Representatives from cosponsoring H.R. 1489, with a special emphasis on the House Financial Services Committee. The fact that Rep. Waters signed on nonetheless is a significant defeat for him, and his boss, Obama.
Adding weight to LaRouche's argument on the urgency of reinstituting Glass-Steagall is a statement made by former economics advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, Jared Bernstein, in his blog May 31. Bernstein wrote:
"There will be no WPA-type programs in our near future. There was no appetite for them in the Obama administration in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression and there's a lot less now. The reasons for that are interesting and I'll speak to them another day. But it ain't happening."
