Obama takes case for financial regulation to public

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said yesterday new financial regulations being debated by the Senate will protect consumers from "the predatory practices of unscrupulous lenders" and prevent future financial crises.

Obama, in his weekly address on radio and the Internet, said the legislation will ensure consumers get the information they need to make financial decisions and "level the playing field" by subjecting all lenders to tough oversight.

"The Wall Street reform bill in Congress represents the strongest consumer financial protections in history," he said. "You have a stake in it if you've ever been treated unfairly by a credit card company, misled by pages and pages of fine print or ended up paying fees and penalties you've never heard of before."

The Senate last week debated legislation aimed at tightening Wall Street oversight after the financial crisis. The bill would be the biggest overhaul of financial regulation in more than 70 years.

"With reform, we'll make our financial system more transparent by bringing the kinds of complex, backroom deals that helped trigger this crisis into the light of day," Obama said Saturday. He also endorsed provisions that would prevent financial institutions from growing so large they pose a risk to the entire economy, and rules that would let shareholders have input into how much corporate executives are paid.

In the Republican address, Rep. Chris Lee of New York criticized the Democratic majority for likely skipping the annual task of writing a budget for the U.S. government. "Families are making tough choices each month in order to live within a budget and government should be doing the same," Lee said. He called the inability of Congress to pass a budget "a remarkable failure of leadership" as the United States faces mounting deficits.