Bloomberg And Schumer Disagree Over Financial Reform

Mayor Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer haven't been seeing eye to eye recently over Wall Street reform, a rift made more apparent by Bloomberg's recent trip to Washington. Bloomberg, concerned that reform will inhibit Wall Street's revenues and its effect on NYC's revenue, allegedly spoke out against Schumer in a GOP meeting, calling him "AWOL" and criticizing him for not defending the financial industry after building his career on it. Bloomberg said Schumer's absence "is a real problem for New York City,” according to one Republican Senator.

However, one source close to Schumer said, “The mayor’s jihad against Obama and Schumer and the Dodd bill [is] a curious strategy. When you come down to Washington and argue for next to no regulation, it puts New York in the cross hairs more, not less.” Schumer, who has been very vocal about issues like ensuring airlines don't charge for carry-on luggage, only announced last Friday that he supports Wall Street reform, because "strongly and smartly regulated Wall Street will be a healthier Wall Street."

And there's more: Bloomberg is also annoyed at Schumer's backing of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for Hillary Clinton's old Senate seat. Schumer is allegedly upset that he has to learn about Bloomberg's gripes from others instead of at their one-on-one dinners, which haven't happened in months, while Bloomberg is reportedly still miffed that he was not notified of President Obama's visit to New York tomorrow, and had to learn about it from blogs. White House spokesman Bill Burton said, "The mayor and his staff of course were notified. Sometimes reporters find out about things before every notification call is made. I know he's a very plugged-in mayor and reads a lot of blogs, so he's obviously on top of things." Well, he sure does love the Twitter.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jaya Saxena in News on April 21, 2010 10:27 AM

Comments [rss]

poxod

Bloomberg needs to chill the heck out. Sure he's the mayor of the biggest city in the country but he's not the boss of everyone. We need Gillibrand in office, she bridges the gap between upstate and downstate as well or better than Hillary ever did. If we don't support her, we'll end up with a Scott Brown. Get over yourself and see the big picture Mike.

Oxford

Two key differences between Mike and Chuck. 1) Bloomberg actually understands finance and has a clue; and 2) Bloomberg doesn't need to pander to the pitchfork crowd because he isn't running again, he is self-financed anyway, and more to the point he has integrity.

As Mike promised, the current war on Wall St will have devastating consequences for NYC, and Schumer may be the first senator to set out to destroy his own constituents. Good job a--hole.

Mr. Shankly

Schumer and Dodd were all for deregulation back when it mattered.

You're a day late and a trillion short, Chuckie.

Send him packing. At least Dodd is smart enough to retire.

unretrofiedforu

O, you mean back when no one outside of the financial industry knew the extent of how much Wall Street really was raping America in the name of 'deregulation' and it seemed the good times would last forever?

Yeah, exactly. Let's blame the politicians trying to do SOMETHING and completely ignore Wall Street. They're all going to 'leave' anyway, you know their 2-3 houses in the area, kids in schools, property and assets all around... don't want them just getting up and going if reform does occur. Idiots.

JacqueMehoff

you know what's a problem in NY? Bloomberg.

of course, the mayor and his staff were notified.

Bring in Ray Kelly, what did he have to say about this?