Pro-Obama Group Hits Airwaves to Push Financial Reform

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

President Obama is getting some support for his financial reform legislation from Americans United for Change, which is putting up an ad in Washington this week to attack big banks and promote his Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The ad for cable stations, provided in advance to Washington Whispers, portrays big banks as pigs wallowing in mud. One pig is shown with lipstick as the announcer says: "Now the Wall Street lobbyists say they'll clean up their act. But remember, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

The ad will run on cable news stations. The legislation is part of the president's shift to a more populist agenda, and the pro-Obama group, which has aired several ads in support of the president's programs, is moving aggressively to help Obama push bank reform through Congress.

"Bankrupt of any shame, the big banks are already back to business as usual, raking in billions in profits and bonuses and spending hundreds of millions to pay lobbyists to fight against reforms that would protect working families and small businesses from their abuses in the future. That's why there's no time for Congress to waste answering President Obama's call to pass financial regulatory reform, including a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency," said Tom McMahon, acting executive director of Americans United for Change. And suggesting that members could face stepped-up opposition from groups like his for not backing the president, he added, "Members of Congress soon face a clear choice: stand with the Wall Street lobbyists by obstructing reform or stand with hard-hit working families and small businesses on Main Street by getting it passed."

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