These Are the Democrats Who Voted with Republicans to Deregulate the Banks

The Senate passed a bill on Wednesday to further deregulate the banks by a vote of 67-31. Though the bill appears to include everything that Republicans wanted and more, that didn’t stop 16 Democratic senators from signing off.

The main goal of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act is to deregulate community banks, even though the FDIC claims these banks were already doing just fine before this bill. It also cuts regulations, created after the recent recession, for 25 of the biggest banks in America.

The 16 Democrats include, perhaps most glaringly, Hillary Clinton’s former running mate and Tim Kaine (VA) and the recently elected senator Doug Jones from Alabama. While many liberals were quick to champion Kaine, the “king of dad jokes,” along with “woke” Doug Jones whose election victory was saved by African Americans, it’s worth noting that neither of them were very liberal to begin with.

Kaine is notably pro-life, supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership (though has since reversed that position) and took donations from the financial service industry during his 2012 Senate campaign. Even President Trump called out Kaine’s coziness with the big banks (though Trump’s not really one to talk, given all the former bankers in his administration.) Kaine also voted to approve five of Trump’s cabinet nominations, including Nikki Haley, General Mattis and General Kelly.

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Tim Kaine is, and always has been, owned by the banks. Bernie supporters are outraged, was their last choice. Bernie fought for nothing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2016

Doug Jones is also fairly moderate, as he did not join several Democrats’ repeated calls for President Trump to resign and his Senate campaign video even calls a Confederate colonel “brave.”

Many of the other Democrats voting for the bill are also moderate or come from largely conservative states, and include several women like Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jeanne Shaheen (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). The other Democratic senators who voted for the bill include Michael Bennet (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Mark Warner (D-VA).

Many of these Democratic senators voiced their support for the bill due to its added consumer protections, which include regulations on credit monitoring companies like the disastrous Equifax, who were hacked three times last year and exposed the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans. Regardless, their action certainly won’t help the immense ideological divide in the party.

Read the entire Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act bill for yourself here.