President Obama pulled off a neat trick with his announcement on regulatory streamlining yesterday. Initially, it earned praise from the right (they claimed it was their idea) and emnity on the left, even though it looked to be more of an announcement of general principles rather than any specific prescription. Then, when asked if the streamlining would incorporate the two major legislative goals of the Administration so far, health care and financial reform, both of which have a major regulatory component, they said no, the announcement had nothing to do with that. And that earned the emnity of the right and muted praise from the left. So as a result, nobody’s happy with this clear kabuki announcement.

On the biggest issues of the session – tax policy and government funding – the Republicans got their way, and set the stage for the 112th Congress that should feature major spending cuts. In the process, Democrats did not even bother to get important government functions funded, including money for the implementation of their top two legislative achievements, health care and financial reform.

This is the lifeline of the foreclosure fraud crisis: funding of mediation programs and legal services attorneys. Lawyers need to be in the field so borrowers have a fighting chance at due process, to protect themselves from predatory servicers and prevent illegal foreclosures. Without more funding, the efforts at accountability may just wither. News organizations are doing a great job but the lawyers need to be funded.

There was some concern a few weeks back that an amendment by Sen. Al Franken to the defense appropriations bill, which would prevent the government from working with defense contractors who deny court hearings to their employees over issues like discrimination, harrassment or assault because of binding arbitration process, would be gutted during the conference committee process. Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case.