Obama signs legacy-boosting financial reform bill

reuters

US President Barack Obama Wednesday signed the most sweeping historic finance reform bill since the 1930s, promising US taxpayers they will never again foot the bill for Wall Street’s extravagance. 

The legislation introduces new customer protections, scrutinizes the power of investment houses and cracks down on deceptive practices by credit card companies.

“Because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes. There will be no more tax-funded bailouts,” Obama promised.

Aiming to restore public confidence in his economic leadership as unemployment figures soar, Obama, who is facing record low approval ratings in some opinion polls, said the bill will repair the fractures and abuses of which the collapse of the financial world was born.

“It was a failure of responsibility from certain corners of Wall Street to the halls of power in Washington,” he said before adding the legacy-boosting law to his huge healthcare reform passed earlier in 2010.

The financial reform bill squeezed through Congress with only a handful of Republican votes as the opposition party continued with its policy of trying to block Obama’s ambitious reform program at all costs.

Republican leaders believe it will stunt US growth and tie the hands of its financial powerhouses.

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said the President “has signed into law a 2,300 page behemoth that will saddle the business community with innumerable unintended consequences, tighter credit, and countless job-killing regulations.”