Financial Reform Back on the Brink

Only a couple days after announcing a big breakthrough on financial reform, the same package may be back on the brink. First, Senator Feingold announced that he would vote against the measure.

In case you haven't caught this bombshell yet, Senator Feingold announced that he won't support the FinReg bill as negotiated. This means the bill needs to go back to square one unless there's a Republican defector in the next day or two, which is extremely unlikely.

Hours later, Senator Scott Brown announced the same.

I am writing you to express my strong opposition to the $19 billion bank tax that was included in the financial reform bill during the conference committee," wrote Brown. "This tax was not in the Senate version of the bill, which I supported. If the final version of this bill contains these higher taxes, I will not support it."

This only leaves four undecided Senators: Grassley of Iowa, Snowe and Collins of Maine and Senator Cantwell of Washington. All would have to vote for the measure for it to get sixty votes.