Here Lies Regular Order (2025-2025)

Incredibly depressing to see congress continue its total abdication of responsibility, continuing the trend of refusing to take any sort of stand least they have a fund-raiser give them less money, that started all the way back in 2001 with The Authorization for Use of Military Force.

It all sounded great until one senator tried it. Then, his colleagues came to the realization that they didn’t actually want to be lawmakers if it meant that a source of future campaign donations might get mad at them. Empty suits are much safer and more pleasant.

It's also particularly depressing to see the CCCA, the only hope to end the truly atrocious credit card processing fees, bogged down along with this bullshit crypto currency bill.

As I wrote earlier this week, the GENIUS Act, which sets up a fairly industry-friendly regulatory regime for stablecoins, was poised to sail through the Senate with enthusiastic support from Republicans and pro-crypto Democrats until Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) tried to get an amendment for his bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act, which would attempt to break the Visa/Mastercard duopoly and lower merchant fees that have been killing retail businesses.

What senators hated about Marshall’s proposed amendment was that it would force them to choose between the retail lobby on one side and banks, credit card companies, and airlines (which are flying banks with their credit card reward programs) on the other. They would rather not choose and collect checks from everyone.

This was really the first bill where the open amendment process was in place and “regular order” was in effect. Thune quickly realized that senators would rather talk about governing than actually govern. There was a weeklong impasse amid jockeying for which amendments would get what votes. And Thune finally threw up his hands and ended the amendment process altogether.

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This finally memorializes the bargain that some Senate Democrats made last month that made it easier for them to support the GENIUS Act. So Democrats will facilitate tech barons like Elon Musk creating their own private currencies, a race to the bottom framework for smaller stablecoin issuers that will have no federal oversight, and the potential for dangerous linkages between crypto and the broader financial system that could trigger financial crises.