Hillary Clinton knocked Republicans who “have decided to forget” the 2008 financial crisis and explained her opposition to reinstating the Glass-Steagall banking law in an op-ed for the New York Times on Monday morning.
After recounting the damage from the crash and praising President Barack Obama’s stewardship of the economic recovery, Clinton admonished “Republicans, both in Congress and on the campaign trail,” who “are dead-set on rolling back critical financial protections.”
“Republicans may have decided to forget about the financial crisis that caused so much devastation — but I haven’t,” she wrote.
Clinton has faced criticism over her perceived Wall Street ties — an issue which primary opponent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has focused on in his challenge to the former Secretary of State — and the op-ed in the Times reflects her campaign’s ongoing effort to harness voter antipathy toward the financial sector.
The Democratic front-runner also outlined key components of her Wall Street policy, including protecting safeguards instituted under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
“As president, I would not only veto any legislation that would weaken financial reform, but I would also fight for tough new rules, stronger enforcement and more accountability that go well beyond Dodd-Frank,” Clinton wrote.
Clinton focused in particular on her opposition to reinstating Glass-Steagall, a decades old banking rule, repealed in 1999, while her husband was president. Sanders supports reviving the legislation over which the two have sparred.
“Some have urged the return of a Depression-era rule called Glass-Steagall, which separated traditional banking from investment banking,” wrote Clinton. “But many of the firms that contributed to the crash in 2008, like AIG and Lehman Brothers, weren’t traditional banks, so Glass-Steagall wouldn’t have limited their reckless behavior. Nor would restoring Glass-Steagall help contain other parts of the ‘shadow banking’ sector.”
She added, “We need to tackle excessive risk wherever it lurks, not just in the banks.”