US President Barack Obama has criticised Republicans for launching "an all-out battle" to undo his ambitious Wall Street reform and consumer protection measures to prevent American people from suffering another financial crisis.
In his penultimate radio and Internet weekly address before the November six presidential polls, Obama said that Republican lawmakers were "waging an all-out battle to delay, defund and dismantle" the new rules aimed at protecting American people.
"Backed by an army of financial industry lobbyists, they've been waging an all-out battle to delay, defund and dismantle these new rules. I refuse to let that happen," Obama, 51, seeking re-election to the White House, asserted.
Wall Street Reform, commonly called the Dodd-Frank Bill, was signed by Obama in 2010. The law was passed to make US financial system more transparent and accountable, avoid another economic crisis, and to ensure that there is a system in place that will work towards protecting tax payers' money.
It created new regulatory agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, whose job is to exercise control over financial markets to avoid excesses that had led to the 2008 financial turmoil.
However, Republicans argue that Wall Street reform has hurt the US economic recovery and killed jobs by making it more difficult for banks to lend and more costly for companies to do business.
But in his address yesterday, Obama highlighted the nation's new independent consumer watchdog as an example of the good the Dodd-Frank reform act has done.
"It's now been four years since a crisis that began on Wall Street spread to Main Street, hammering middle-class families and ultimately costing our economy 9 million jobs."
