Jeff Weaver is the muscle behind the resurgent Bernie Sanders campaign. Appearing with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, Weaver explained why he believes Hillary is so popular with Wall Street.
WEAVER: They give her money because they like her positions.
MATTHEWS: You just said they do it because they are paid to do it, (referencing his claim this week that Clinton sold her soul to the devil).
Bernie is not a free trader. He's been against all the trade deals, and Sec. Clinton was not. Those are differences of opinion. Somebody's not a hooker or a prostitute because they support one of those positions.
WEAVER: That's condemnatory, I said [the Clintons] are supported by corporate interests because they support the corporate agenda.
You've got it wrong Chris. They don't give her money so she will change her position. They give her money because they like her positions.
Weaver pleads his case by explaining that these donors aren't giving her money for purely philanthropic reasons. Of course, they expect a certain return on their investment once she is in office, and suspect she will outperform Sanders when it comes to enacting policies that are more Wall Street-friendly.
As unpropitious as Weaver paints Hillary Clinton with regards to Wall Street, she isn't beloved entirely for her positions. In this polarized nation, her policies are much more economically sound than her GOP counterparts, and we shouldn't miss the big picture. She was a part of the creation of the agency that Senator Elizabeth Warren oversees:
Protecting the financial health of the American people. Hillary Clinton put Elizabeth Warren’s idea of a Financial Product Safety Commission “at the heart” of her financial reform agenda, calling for its creation so it could “crack down on abusive and predatory lenders and to protect consumers.” This idea – now known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – was implemented two years later in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law of 2010. And in 2006, Hillary introduced legislation to require financial companies give consumers a copy of all company records related to a given consumer every year free of charge.
She is also for eliminating the carried interest deduction.
Carried interest is a designation of income that allows investors in hedge fund, private equity and venture capital firms to have their profits taxed under the capital gains rate -- a significantly lower rate than how ordinary income is taxed.
However, Hillary's plans are still troubling to many Democrats.
One Warren-backed proposal that was conspicuously absent from Clinton’s op-ed is the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, legislation that forced banks to separate their commercial and investment operations. The law was repealed in 1999 under President Bill Clinton.
The contention that she has yet to release her speech transcripts to various Wall Street giants is a hot one, one that Weaver will not put to rest any time soon. Weaver managed to dodge the question, the one where he nails down the particular legislation she sponsored that was the payback for financial favors from Wall Street. He attributes her popularity with the market to the positions she espouses, not Hillary herself. He wouldn't take the bait from Matthews and flat out call her a 'corporate whore.' For Bernie's sake, he needs to keep improving.
