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THE TICKER

To understand where the debate over financial regulation stands today, it helps to rewind the clock.

Two years and two weeks ago, Hillary Clinton delivered a speech on New Yorks Roosevelt Island that formally launched her presidential bid. The address was heavy on personal biography, but it also nodded toward the policy themes shed develop over the campaign. The GOP hopefuls already crowding the race, she said, pledge to wipe out tough rules on Wall Street, rather than rein in the banks that are still too risky, courting future failures in a case that can only be considered mass amnesia.

Three days later, Donald Trump elbowed his way into the Republican field. And over the next several months, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)would rise from a gadfly to a serious threat to Clintons once-assumed coronation. Both outsiders were born aloft by twin engines of anti-establishment animus rumbling out on the parties wings.

Clinton went on to flesh out a program that in any other campaign would be considered notably strict on the financial industry. She advocated extending regulation to the world of so-called shadow banking by big insurance companies and hedge funds. She called for imposing a new risk fee on the biggest banks; raising taxes on activist investors and high-frequency traders; tightening the Volcker Rule; curbing executive compensation on Wall Street; and creating new tools for regulators and prosecutors to hold individual wrongdoers accountable.

Trump, on the other hand, vowed to dismantle the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which he blamed for slowing economic growth by choking off lending. And he pledged to rip up regulations of every stripe. Yet borrowing a page from the Sanders playbook, he also managed to tag Clinton as the candidate friendliest to the industry. He hammered her for the Wall Street money she collected in speaking fees and checks to the Clinton Foundation. Goldman Sachs, he said at one point, had total control over Clinton. The ad that formed the closing argument of his campaign showed grainy footage of Clinton shaking hands with Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein. It painted Clinton as a tool of a shadowy globalist conspiracy. (Watch it here:)

In the first chapter of Trumps presidency, the struggle over financial regulation has passed through the looking glass. Where Trump offered a confused message on the campaign the Republican platform called both for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking his administration has adopted an unequivocally pro-industry approach. Wall Street alums populate his economic brain trust. The road map for rethinking financial regulation that his Treasury Department issued earlier this month reads like a big bank wish-list.

Meanwhile, Democrats, who competed during the campaign to stake out the most aggressive stance toward policing the sector, now look hopelessly divided over which direction to head. When House Republicans brought their proposal for gutting Dodd-Frank to the floor earlier this month, Democrats disarmed. Instead of pushing amendments designed to highlight the GOPs pro-industry tilt, they held off, in part to avoid forcing their own finance-friendly members onto the record. And there was no talk at all about cranking the regulatory dial in the other direction of tightening rules, as Clinton had proposed on the campaign. The Democratic position instead was simply to defend the status quo: Our alternative is Dodd-Frank, one House Democratic leadership told me.

A similar dynamic has played out in the Senate. Last week, a handful of the most powerful Wall Street regulators assembled before the Senate Banking Committee to offer their thoughts about the future of regulation. The conversation revolved around how far to go lifting the industrys burden. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), for example, joined Republicans in endorsing an easing of the Volcker Rule. That left Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), scourge of the big banks, trying simply to hold the line for a regime under which theyre prospering. Institutions that entered the year nervous that a Glass-Steagall revival would gain traction could breathe a sigh of relief: Over the two-hour course of the hearing, the proposal wasnt mentioned.

Here was one financial regulation reporter's takeaway:

Whats going on here? Industry advocates say a law written in the immediate aftermath of a system-rattling crisis is ripe for technical tweaks. Its a view given credence by regulatory stalwarts calling for adjustments, a roster that includes Federal Reserve ChairJanet L. Yellen, former Fed governor Daniel Tarullo, and former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) himself.

Critics say the party is missing a historic opportunity. We have a merger of Wall Street and the White House like no time in modern memory, says Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a nonprofit advocacy group. It should be a no-brainer. Focus groups of Rust Belt voters who backed Obama and then Trump affirm the conclusion. Guy Cecil chairman of Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC has found those voters feel the Democratic Party no longer stands up for their interests and that it must do more to confront the industry.

Democratic waffling on the Wall Street question points to a more fundamental rift in the party about its shortest path out of the wilderness. The Posts Dan Balz, writing over the weekend, says Democrats are struggling to unify around a broader economic message:

Though united in vehement opposition to the president, Democrats do not speak with one voice. Fault lines and fissures exist between the ascendant progressive wing at the grass roots and those Democrats who remain more business-friendly. While these differences are not as deep as those seen in Trumps Republican Party, that hasnt yet generated a compelling or fresh message to take to voters who arent already sold on the party.

The debate has only just begun. For progressives, Balz writes, the answer to this problem is clear: a boldly liberal message that attacks big corporations and Wall Street and calls for a significant increase in governments role in reducing income and wealth inequality. Moderates are already resisting. But this much is clear: Standing against Trump is an insufficient strategy for defeating Republicans. And another campaign season, rapidly approaching, will force the question.

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If the deal now taking shape reaches the president's desk,millions including some of Trumps most ardent supporters are projected to lose coverage, receive fewer benefits or see their premiums rise.

Jared Kushner's real estate firm received a $285 million loan from Deutsche Bank just before the election, my colleagueMichael Kranish reports.The deal came as the bankwas negotiating to settle a federal mortgage fraud case and charges from New York state regulators that it aided a possible Russian money-laundering scheme. It settled the cases in December and January.The White House, in response to questions from The Post, said in a statement that Kushnerwill recuse from any particular matter involving specific parties in which Deutsche Bank is a party.

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MONEY ON THE HILL

House Republicans are looking to generate $1.5 trillion over a decade by zeroing out the deduction for interest that companies pay on debt. The proposal would whack everyone from Wall Street to wheat farmers, though it's gotten relatively little lobbying attention so far this year, the Wall Street Journal writes. Eliminating the deduction would have a massive impact on a U.S. financial system that favors debt over equity financing. Repeal is hardly assured, with the administration expressing wariness.

The AP takes a step back, meanwhile, toask and attemptto answer, why Republicans are having such a hard time cutting taxes, a defining priority for the party.

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POCKET CHANGE

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CHART TOPPER

The Posts David Fahrenthold and Drew Harwell report that Trumps private Mar-a-Lago resort has seen a drop in events since he announced he would run for president:

TRUMP TRACKER

--Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tied the knot with actress and producer Louise Linton on Saturday a wedding officiated by Vice President Mike Pence and attended by President Trump and members of his family.

First lady Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Kushner, attended the extravagant nuptials at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington. The affair included bagpipers and ballerinas, CNN reported.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The wedding was held at The Andrew Mellon Auditorium, just blocks from the White House. Andrew Mellon, for whom the building was named, was likewise a wealthy businessman-turned-Treasury Secretary, presiding over the roaring 1920s, through the market crash of 1929 and into the beginning of the Great Depression in 1932. The hall is one of two buildings in Washington named for him. He once lived in the other -- now known as the Andrew Mellon Building, at 1785 Massachusetts Ave. NW, and home to the American Enterprise Institute, the right-leaning think tank.

Welcome to Gurgaon, India, Mr. President. Its a mess.

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THE FUNNIES

From The Post's Tom Toles:

BULL SESSION

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) announced he would not support the Republican Senate health-care bill:

Watch as Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner, who was injured during the shooting at a Republican baseball practice, throw out the first pitch before the Congressional Women's Softball Game last week:

Jimmy Fallon on Trumps campaign-style rally in Iowa:

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The Finance 202: Democrats are more divided than ever over Wall Street regulations - Washington Post