Chris Winn, the Volcker Rule, and the Liberal Organization Public Citizen

Chris Winn appeared on Thursday's edition of Lubbock's First News accusing Randy Neugebauer of siding with Wall Street instead of with the people when it comes to the Volcker Rule. Winn posted on the KFYO Facebook site a letter and a PDF from a group called Public Citizen that names Congressman Randy Neugebauer as someone who wants to weaken the Volcker Rule. You can view the file on Chris Winn's website, here.

So what is the Volcker Rule? According to the CBS News:

Named after former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, the Volcker rule essentially would have banned the banks from using their own money to invest in the financial markets.

The rule was passed as part of the 2010 legislation overhauling the rules of Wall Street, but the details were not set in the legislation and instead left to regulators who had two years to finalize details of precisely what would and would not be prohibited.

Chris Winn isn't happy that Neugebauer isn't a champion of the Volcker Rule at all. So who is? Mainly Democrats like Barney Frank, Carl Levin, and Jeff Merkley. Those who want to weaken the Volcker Rule are both Democrat and Republican, but it is mainly the Democrats that are pushing for tighter regulations.

According to Chris Winn's website, he got his information from a group called Public Citizen. However, Chris Winn's PDF doesn't exactly tell the whole story. On Winn's website, you only see pages 4 and 5 of a PDF file. However, the Huffington Post has the entire PDF including what Chris Winn leaves out which would be why Randy Neugebauer wants to weaken the Volcker Rule.

Here, you can read the entire report.

What you don't see on Chris Winn's page is that on page 6 Neugebauer along with 120 other House co-signers say that, "the rule, as drafted, would result in higher borrowing costs for American businesses, thereby impacting economic growth and job creation."

The report goes on to say that, "Neugebauer's letter was one of many to claim that the Volcker Rule would reduce the liquidity of markets."

Public Citizen issues a response on page 7 that says warnings over liquidity are overstated.

Interesting. Chris Winn seems to be going along with Public Citizen and some Democrats who want the Volcker Rule strengthened. You might be asking yourself, who is this group called Public Citizen? Good question.

Public Citizen is a liberal organization, started by Ralph Nadar, that lobbies Congress. How liberal? A quick look at their Board of Directors tells a lot. I used the website opensecrets.org to see where political donations have gone to. One Board Member has donated over $16,000 to Democrats since 2008 including John Edwards and Elizabeth Warren. Other's have donated thousands to President Obama and other Democrats. I could not find one member who donated to a Republican. In fact, one of the Board Members, David Halperin was a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and Howard Dean. He is now an adviser to Greenpeace.

Other action areas for Public Citizen include getting corporate money out of politics, exposing corporations that are rigging the justice system, and overturning the "perverse" Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. You see the full list here.

Just from what I see about Public Citizen, including the fact that they pressed for a single-payer health care system, doesn't make me want to side with them anytime soon. I'm not so sure Chris Winn should have either.