Deceptive practices have become as commonplace in this Congress and White House as President Obama's best friend, his trusty teleprompter without which he can't string 3 sentences together without fouling them up.

The latest congressional outrage came today with Senate passage of the "banking bill" which is as much about payback to special interests as it is about banking. The latest White House outrage came last week with the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick as Obama's Obamacare Czar.

Question: When Is a Banking Bill Not a Banking Bill? Answer: When it becomes a Social Welfare Reform Bill.

Cobbled together over a year under the direction of Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd and Democrat Rep. Barney Frank, the 2300 or 2400 page-no one seems to have counted the pages or read the thing-"monstrosity" was largely crafted by those two principals who also happen to be two of the prime unindicted criminals in the near-collapse of the banking system.

With no new regulation or oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the 2 quasi-governmental bodies most responsible for that near-collapse, the bill squeaked through on a 60-39 vote thanks to the abdication of three Senate RINOs, Brown, Collins, and Snowe.

Obama is sure to sign the bill in short order since it gives him pretty much what he asked in the way of curbing certain banking practices. It also includes a number of consumer-friendly provisions-as well as a number of jobs-unfriendly and business-unfriendly features.

All the new rules on lending institutions will mean soaring expenses which will adversely affect depositor interest rates and thus what consumers are being given with one hand will be taken away by the other.

For an excellent summary of the banking provisions see "Wall Street Crackdown, Consumer Guards on the Way," [http://tiny.cc/z90lj]. As is typical with the MSM, that Yahoo report makes no mention of the payback goodies nor of the onerous social engineering features incorporated in the semi-banking bill.

Not mentioned by Yahoo are the following elements of the bill which are totally unrelated to banking:

. "A measure to make it easier for unions, environmental groups and other activist organizations that hold shares to put their representatives on the boards of directors of every corporation in the United States."

. "Costly new burdens [will be imposed] on airlines, utilities and other non-financial businesses that were victims rather than villains in the [banking] crisis."

. "Other provisions... favor Democratic constituencies directly by requiring banks and federal agencies to hire and do more business with them."

. "The bill would create more than 20 'offices of minority and women inclusion' at the Treasury, Federal Reserve and other government agencies, to ensure they employ more women and minorities and grant more federal contracts to more women- and minority-owned businesses:" [http://tiny.cc/lcc2y]

In sum, by omitting Fannie and Freddie from this farcical bill, the Democrats have accomplished virtually nothing with respect to banking reform. At the same time, by loading the bill up with gender-specific and minority-specific gravy, they may have gained a few votes but at the cost of yet another overbearing federal government intrusion on American life and business.

Next: Democrat Chicanery: When Is a Czar a Socialistic Dr. Mengele?