US President Barack Obama on Saturday accused Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, of waging a "cynical and deceptive" attack against a measure to tighten regulation of the nation's financial system, and vowed to move ahead on the bill with or without the minority party's support. President Obama used his weekly address to make the case for the bill, which would create a new consumer protection authority and impose new rules aimed at avoiding a repeat of the conditions that led to the economic meltdown of 2008. Republicans, led by Mr. McConnell, have asserted that the measure would encourage future bailouts by creating a fund to rescue companies whose failure would damage the broader economy. President Obama, using Mr. McConnell's title but not his name, suggested the Republican leader is being duplicitous, and said Mr. McConnell had met recently with two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about "how to block progress" on the bill. "Lo and behold, when he returned to Washington, the Senate Republican leader came out against the common-sense reforms we've proposed," President Obama said. "In doing so, he made the cynical and deceptive assertion that reform would somehow enable future bailouts - when he knows that it would do just the opposite." Using language that echoed his strategy in passing landmark health care legislation, President Obama attacked "special interests" for opposing the measure, and vowed that Democrats would move ahead however they could. There is broad agreement between the two parties that taxpayers should never again have to bail out financial institutions. But there is deep disagreement about the measure being drafted in the Senate. The bill would establish a $50 billion "orderly liquidation fund," financed by assessments on "systemically important" financial institutions, as well as banks with at least $50 billion in assets. The measure would give the Treasury secretary authority to step in if such "systemically important" institutions were on the verge of failure. "My hope is that Democrats and Republicans can find common ground and move forward together," President Obama said in his address. "But this is certain: one way or another, we will move forward."
