"In this financial modernization bill, it's painfully clear who the winners and losers are. Banks, insurance companies and securities firms are big winners, not surprisingly, since they were the ones negotiating at the table with lawmakers.  Losers are lower income communities and consumers.

"Here's what the financial institutions get.  They get to form huge corporations that can afford to ignore families and small businesses down the street.  They get a weaker Community Reinvestment Act, which could result in a decline in loans to minorities, small businesses and communities in need.  CRA has brought literally $1 trillion worth of loans into starving communities since its passage in 1977, much of it the result of prodding by local community and economic development organizations.  S. 900 lowers the requirements for CRA compliance and unnecessarily burdens the community based organizations that are fighting for investment in their neighborhoods.

"The financial conglomerates are winners because they get access to their customers' most private, personal, medical and financial information which they can use for any purpose without permission.  When a widow receives the benefit from her husband's life insurance policy, the insurance company can share that information with its brokerage firm, which can then barrage the grieving woman with stock offerings.  The bank that gives you a loan for you child's education can sell her address to a credit card company which then entices her with a card at school.  If your investments have a bad day on the stock market or you make a claim against your health insurance, then kiss that mortgage good-bye.  Write checks to a psychiatrist or oncologist and then just try to get a new health insurance policy.  

"Why should we be for this bill?  What's in this financial modernization for the senior citizens, or working parents in my district?   I'm here to protect and advance their interests, not the big banks, insurance companies and securities companies.  That is why I voted no."