奥巴马每周电视讲话 如果华尔街再次失控

Weekly Address: Warns of GOP Efforts to Repeal¹ Wall Street Reform - Including Foreclosure Protections
 每周电视讲话：对共和党试图废除华尔街改革法案的警告——包括对取消赎回权的保护
 
WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Obama called out the Republican leadership in Congress for vowing² to repeal Wall Street reform, which will protect Americans from unfair practices in mortgage transactions and foreclosures.  The Wall Street reform law also set new rules so that taxpayers³ will never again be on the hook for a bailout if a big financial company goes under, helps rein⁴ in the secret deals and reckless gambling⁵ that nearly brought the financial system down, and set up the strongest consumer protections in history.  The special interests fought hard against reform, spending millions to preserve a system that worked better for them than for middle class families.  And now, the GOP leadership is calling for repealing⁶ this law and that would take the country backwards⁷.
 华盛顿：在本周的讲话中，奥巴马总统称国会共和党领导层发誓要废除华尔街改革法案，该法案本将保护美国人民在抵押贷款交易和取消抵押赎回权中免受不公平对待。华尔街改革法案同时还设定了新的规则确保纳税人再也不会在大型金融企业面临倒闭时陷入为其提供紧急援助的圈套，该法案还将帮助我们严格控制各种秘密交易和不顾一切的赌博行径，这些差点把我们的金融系统搞瘫掉，法案还设定了有史以来最强有力的消费者保护政策。特殊利益集团竭力反对该项改革，耗资数百万来维持现有系统更好为他们服务而不是为中产家庭服务。现在，共和党领导宣称将废止该法案，这将使得国家陷入倒退困境。
 
Over the past two years, we’ve won a number of battles to defend the interests of the middle class.  One of the most important victories we achieved was the passage of Wall Street Reform.
 在过去的两年里，我们在保卫中产阶级利益的数次战斗中取得了胜利。其中最为重要的一场胜利就是我们赢得了华尔街改革法案的通过。
 
This was a bill designed to rein in the secret deals and reckless gambling that nearly brought down the financial system.  It set new rules so that taxpayers would never again be on the hook for a bailout if a big financial company went under.  And reform included the strongest consumer protections in history – to put an end to a lot of the hidden fees, deceptive⁸ mortgages, and other abusive practices used to tilt⁹ the tables against ordinary people in their financial dealings.
 该法案被设计用来严格控制各类秘密交易以及不顾一切的赌博行径，这些行为差点让我们的金融系统崩溃。法案设立了新的规则确保纳税人再也不会在大型金融公司面临倒闭的时候陷入为其提供紧急援助的陷阱。同时改革法案还包括了有史以来最强有力的消费者保护政策——终结了大量的隐形费用，欺诈性抵押贷款，以及其它在金融交易中不利于普通人的滥用行为。
 
It was a tough fight.  The special interests poured millions into a lobbying campaign to prevent us from reforming the system – a system that worked a lot better for them than for middle class families.  Some in the financial industry were eager to protect a status quo that basically allowed them to play by their own rules.  And these interests held common cause with Republican leaders in Washington who were looking to score a political victory in an election year.
 这是场艰苦的战斗。特殊利益集团在游说活动中倾注了数百万美元来阻止我们对现有系统的改革——该系统为他们而不是中产家庭服务的更好。金融产业中的一些人渴望保持现状以便他们完全按照他们自己的规则游戏。这些利益相关方与共和党领导人们拥有相同的动机，期盼着在选举年里赢得政治上的胜利。
 
But their efforts failed.  And we succeeded in passing reform in the hopes of ensuring that we never again face a crisis like the one we’ve been through – a crisis that unleashed¹⁰ an economic downturn as deep as any since the Great Depression.  Even today, we are still digging out of the damage it unleashed on the economy.  Millions of people are still out of work.  Millions of families are still hurting.
 但他们的努力白费了。而我们成功获得改革法案的通过，赢得了确保我们不会再一次面临我们经历过的危机——自大萧条以来导致最严重的经济低迷的危机——的希望。即便今天，我们依然在为走出这场危机带给我们经济的伤害而不断努力。数百万人依然没有工作。数百万家庭依然在痛苦挣扎。
 
We’re also seeing the reverberations of this crisis with the rise in foreclosures.  And recently, we’ve seen problems in foreclosure proceedings¹¹ – mistakes that have led to disruptions in the housing markets.  This is only one more piece of evidence as to why Wall Street Reform is so necessary.  In fact, as part of reform, a new consumer watchdog is now standing¹² up.  It will have just one job: looking out for ordinary consumers in the financial system.  And this watchdog will have the authority to guard against unfair practices in mortgage transactions and foreclosures.
 我们也看到了取消赎回权的上升对这场危机的反应。最近，我们可以看见在取消赎回权操作中出现的一些问题——这些错误破坏了房地产市场。这只是另外一个为什么华尔街改革法案如此急需的证据。实际上，由于有了改革法案，新的消费者监督部门正在成立中。它只有一项任务：就是在金融系统中保护普通消费者。该监督部门将有权在抵押贷款交易和取消赎回权中保护消费者免受不公对待。
 
Yet despite the importance of this law – and despite the terrible economic dislocation caused by the failures in our financial system under the old rules – top Republicans in Congress are now beating the drum to repeal all of these reforms and consumer protections.  Recently, one of the Republican leaders in the Senate said that if Republicans take charge of Congress, repeal would be one of the first orders of business.  And he joins the top Republican in the House who actually called for the law to be repealed¹³ even before it passed.
 然而不顾该法案的重要性——不顾金融系统中旧规则的失败导致的严重的经济失调——国会共和党最高领导人却大张旗鼓地要废除所有的改革和消费者保护政策。最近，参议院共和党的一位领导人说，如果共和党控制了国会，废止改革法案将是第一要务。而且他还与国会共和党最高领导联合起来，该领导人甚至在该法案没有通过之前就宣称要废除它。
 
I think that would be a terrible mistake.  Our economy depends on a financial system in which everyone competes on a level playing field, and everyone is held to the same rules – whether you’re a big bank, a small business owner, or a family looking to buy a house or open a credit card. And as we saw, without sound oversight¹⁴ and common-sense protections for consumers, the whole economy is put in jeopardy¹⁵.  That doesn’t serve Main Street.  That doesn’t serve Wall Street.  That doesn’t serve anyone.  And that’s why I think it’s so important that we not take this country backward – that we don’t go back to the broken system we had before.  We’ve got to keep moving forward.
 我认为这是个严重的错误。我们的经济依赖于一个让每个人能公平竞争，每个人都遵从相同游戏规则的金融系统——无论你是大银行，或是中小企业主，或是寻求购房贷款或开信用卡的普通家庭。我们可以看到，没有健全的监管和正常的消费者保护措施，整个经济都会处在危险之中。这对中产阶级没有好处，对华尔街也没有好处，对任何人都没有好处。这就是我认为改革如此重要的原因，我们不能让国家陷入倒退——我们不能重回我们曾经拥有的破败系统。我们需要不断前进！
 
Thanks.
 谢谢！
 
 

1 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。

2 vowing   

起誓，发誓（vow的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• President Bush is vowing to help Minneapolis rebuild its collapsed bridge. 布什总统承诺将帮助明尼阿波利斯重建坍塌的大桥。
• President Bush is vowing to help Minneapolis rebuild this collapse bridge. 布什总统发誓要帮助明尼阿波利斯重建起这座坍塌的桥梁。

3 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

4 rein   

n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治

参考例句：

• The horse answered to the slightest pull on the rein.只要缰绳轻轻一拉,马就作出反应。
• He never drew rein for a moment till he reached the river.他一刻不停地一直跑到河边。

5 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

6 repealing   

撤销，废除( repeal的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In addition, repealing the alternative minimum tax would also help. 此外，废除替代性最低税也会有所帮助。
• Repealing the investment tax credit. 取消投资税款扣除。

7 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

8 deceptive   

adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• His appearance was deceptive.他的外表带有欺骗性。
• The storyline is deceptively simple.故事情节看似简单，其实不然。

9 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

10 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

12 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

13 repealed   

撤销，废除( repeal的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The Labour Party repealed the Act. 工党废除了那项法令。
• The legislature repealed the unpopular Rent Act. 立法机关废除了不得人心的租借法案。

14 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

15 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。