Warren keeps up criticism of Dems backing deregulation

WASHINGTON» With the Senate poised this week to approve a sweeping rollback of post-financial-crisis banking rules, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., signaled Sunday that she will continue criticizing fellow Democrats lining up behind the bill.

“I don’t understand how anybody in the United States Senate votes for a bill that’s going to increase the likelihood of taxpayer bailouts,” Warren said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Sixteen Senate Democrats last week joined Republicans in a procedural vote to advance the package, opening a rift on the left over whether to ease up on an industry against which the Democratic Party has rallied as recently as the 2016 campaign.

Supporters of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, say it is aimed at providing regulatory relief to small and community banks, not the Wall Street behemoths behind the decade-old crash. Warren has led a drumbeat of criticism from the left that it goes significantly further, potentially allowing the largest financial institutions to take on more risk, easing oversight of foreign-owned banks and watering down consumer protections.

In addition to tweets on the matter, Warren last week used a fundraising solicitation to her email network to call out the bill’s Democratic supporters. The move drew hackles from some in private, Politico reported.

The measure exempts about two dozen financial firms with assets ranging from $50 billion to $250 billion from the strictest rules imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act in the wake of the financial crisis.

Warren and other critics say those institutions accepted billions in taxpayer bailouts at the time and shouldn’t have their oversight relaxed now.

The Massachusetts Democrat went on three Sunday shows to press her point.