As Donald Trump continues gutting crucial regulations while the economy sinks deeper in the midst of a recession, former President Barack Obama subtly reminded him that the reason that our nation isn’t in a depression right now is because of the financial regulations he signed into law a decade ago.
It’s hard to believe since Trump’s reign of terror in the White House seems like it has dragged on for ten years itself, but it was just in 2010 that Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law to prevent the shenanigans that resulted in the Great Recession of 2008 from happening again. That included the restoration of some regulations that Republicans had previously killed despite the fact that they had been in place since the Great Depression.
One would have hoped Republicans might’ve learned from the Great Depression and the Great Recession to keep financial regulations in place, but apparently not.
Trump just recently bragged about cutting regulations at a record pace all while handing corporations trillions of dollars in tax cuts and stimulus cash. Meanwhile, unemployment stands at 11 percent or higher with tens of millions of Americans out of work. Millions could be evicted from their homes later this year and it’s predicted that the economy will only get worse because of Trump’s incompetence. Indeed, Trump inherited a growing and humming economy from Obama, only to piss it away in just three and a half years.
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In recognition of the law he signed ten years ago — and to, perhaps, remind Trump about what is preventing our country from slipping from a recession into a depression — Obama hailed the financial regulations.
Ten years ago, I signed Wall Street reform into law. It was the most sweeping set of financial regulations since the Great Depression—and it’s still working today to prevent another one. Now, it’s up to us to protect it and keep fighting for an economy that works for everybody. pic.twitter.com/jbV7p64xZR
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 21, 2020
In the accompanying video, Obama went on to say that a lesson for “anyone aspiring to leadership” is that sometimes events choose you.
Indeed, past presidents have either risen to the occasion like Obama during tough times or have failed the test of leadership. Trump has failed miserably and he’s only compounding that failure by cutting financial regulations that exist for a reason.
Featured image via Flickr/Pete Souza, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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