“For the second time in two weeks, House Republicans brought up a package of 11 bills designed to deregulate Wall Street and water down Dodd-Frank financial reforms. This time, they had the votes to pass it.

“Today’s bill easily cleared the hurdle of majority support, gaining final passage by a count of 271-154 largely along party lines.

“Even fewer Democrats supported the anti-reform measures this week than last week, which demonstrates the efforts of Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren to recast as politically toxic any legislation with favors for Wall Street.

“The package will now move to the US Senate. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any measures against financial reform if they cross his desk.

“Republicans have a “death by a thousand cuts” strategy to get deregulatory measures approved and undermine the already-weak Dodd-Frank law. Less regulation is a goal of most major American banks and companies, which also tend to be generous political donors.

“The deregulation has drawn fiery responses from advocates of tighter regulation for Wall Street.

“On her Facebook page, Warren called the bills “a giveaway for Wall Street” and praised President Obama for being “committed to protecting Dodd-Frank and standing up to those who want to chip away at critical financial reforms”.

“The economic wreckage caused by the 2008 financial crash destroyed jobs, savings and homes,” said Dennis Kelleher, head of advocacy firm Better Markets. “Financial reform was passed to prevent that from happening again by reducing Wall Street’s high-risk gambling. The votes last week and this week will unleash Wall Street’s biggest banks to go back to their big bets and derivatives trading, putting that progress at risk. It will also make future taxpayer-funded bailouts more likely.”

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Read the full Guardian article by David Dayen here.