In what may be one of the Republican Party’s last sloppy wet kisses to Big Business and Wall Street for a while, an “independent” committee formed by Treasury Secretary Henry M Paulson Jr has recommended the US adopt new rules to allow the Republicans’ big campaign donors to steal as much money as they possibly can.

Among the recommendations:

It recommends making it harder for companies to be indicted by the government or sued by private lawyers, and urges policies to keep the Securities and Exchange Commission from adopting rules that impose high costs on business.

[Insisting the] S.E.C. should be required to perform cost-benefit analyses on all rules before they were adopted. It said the S.E.C. should also take steps to rein in private securities litigation and adopt policies to shield corporate directors and auditors from some lawsuits.

The report said President Bush should direct the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets — composed of Mr. Paulson and the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, the S.E.C. and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission — “to examine the legal and regulatory concerns we raise and to propose whatever reforms it views necessary.”

That could include permitting the group to review cost-benefit analyses before S.E.C. rules take effect, providing businesses with one more avenue of appeal against new rules they oppose.

The report also calls for relatively modest changes in the enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and supports greater shareholder democracy by limiting antitakeover defenses of companies.

After all, why should they be inconvenienced with silly laws designed to prevent more Enrons? And we certainly should require corporate officers and Directors to be held accountable for the actions of the companies they lead, should we?

And of course, these changes should be made NOW

With Congress soon to be under control of the Democrats, the report recommends changes that can be made without legislation. Even so, it remains unclear how much of the report will be adopted by the Treasury or the S.E.C. While the committee said its recommendations would help investors, they drew immediate criticism from one former member of the S.E.C., who said the recommendations would damage the commission and roll back needed regulation. [emp added]

By all means, let’s unlock the safe and allow one last grand smash-and-grab for the corporate millionaires before the adults take over.