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ABC skipped NASA and chose another item on the President's agenda, assigning White House correspondent Jake Tapper and Capitol Hill correspondent Jonathan Karl to cover the debate over new regulations for high finance. Karl landed ABC's new In One Minute feature (Pierre Thomas was asked to run down uranium and plutonium security In One Minute on Monday), rushing through the bill's proposals on bank bankruptcies, government bailouts, consumer finance and derivatives trading.
ABC's Tapper pointed out that Republicans are replying to Barack Obama's argument that the bill would prevent the government from having to bail out too-big-to-fail banks with the following argument: "It is a bill that actually guarantees future bailouts of Wall Street banks." Tapper accounted for such diametrically opposite readings by quoting "message guru" Frank Luntz as the origin for the GOP's talking point. "The single best way to kill this legislation is to link it to the big bank bailout."
So is Luntz correct in his criticism of the bill? Or is he cynically deceptive? That is where Karl's single minute came in: the bill "creates a $50bn fund financed by the banks themselves" to bail out bankruptcies. "So why are Republicans saying the bill opens the door to more bailouts?" Karl inquired. "Because $50bn might not be enough to cover the costs of taking over a failed bank and taxpayers would be on the hook for anything over $50bn."
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