The Senate is in deep negotiations for the new financial reform bill, and the Democrats need to get 3 of the Republican senators to agree with them and vote for it. No easy task for any bill, and certainly not made any easier by the idea that the bill is focused on the future of our financial industry. One of the big hopes of the Democrats is to get moderate Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine to vote with them- but she says she has not decided which way she wants to vote and that the most important thing is… “to get it right.”

“It’s a big issue, and the most important thing is to make sure we get it right,” Snowe told Reuters. “I’m still looking at it- it’s this big.”

So okay, Ms. Snowe, there is a huge bill (she held her hands 6 inches apart when she said “it’s this big,” apparently) and you have to take your time looking through it. I get it. But what do you mean by “get it right?”

Here is what I think needs to be in there in order to make sure they get it right in the Senate, and everything else can be gravy or window-dressing or frosting or whatever you want to call it.

What the Senate Needs to “Get It right”:

1. Independent Monitoring. We need someone who does not work for the government and does not work for Wall Street to be watching over what does and does not happen with the market. Someone who maybe isn’t even a financial person. Some group that just sits there and says that looks shady, that looks fine. There is no way something like a credit default swap would have made it past the eyes of regular people. Like a jury or something that rules on any new financial instrument before it makes its way into the billions of dollars range. And this agency needs to be funded by a tax on Wall Street.
2. Banks Stay Safe. We need to make it so that the investment banks do the investing and the banks that hold our money hang onto it. They can buy and sell everything else, but gambling with peoples’ mortgages and the right to their loans is just ridiculous. There is no reason the mortgages that people are now not able to pay should have been chopped up and sold to random people. Loans should stay with the bank that makes them, as they are already making money on the interest, and that way they can actually stay in the community, rather than being sold like a piece of meat.
3. Salary. I honestly don’t care if executives make millions of dollars a year. If you are that important to the company, like a basketball star or something, you should get paid that way. Fine. But if you are going to get paid that much, do your job right and do it well. Don’t throw up your hands when something goes wrong. Tie salary to accountability, that’s all I’m saying. You make the most, then it’s your fault when it goes wrong. It’s also your victory when it works.  

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