Elizabeth Warren slams GOP over filibuster of Cordray
Who better to defend the importance of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than the senator who conceived it?
Elizabeth Warren slams GOP over filibuster of Cordray
Jeff Gelles, Inquirer Business Columnist
I've always been baffled by Republicans' steadfast demands to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its cradle. Their chief tactic: repeatedly trying to block President Obama's choice of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray - or anyone else - as its director unless Democrats agree to amend the Dodd-Frank provisions establishing it.
Yesterday, in a Senate Banking Committee exchange captured in this video (below), Sen. Elizabeth Warren took aim at that strange campaign, challenging various claims that the CFPB somehow has sinister powers beyond that of other financial regulators. It's five minutes of video worth watching. Warren, of course, is the former law professor who conceived the idea of a new consumer-protection agency and persuaded Obama to insist on its broad authority and independence.
Warren called Cordray "an open book," and questioned assertions made by the agency's foes, including the 43 Senate Republicans vowing yet again to block anyone from the post. Among their demands: that the single director be replaced by a commission, a form of governance typically more subject to political influence, and that the agency's funding be put under Congress' control - unlike that of other financial regulators.
"I think that the delay in getting him confirmed is bad for consumers, it's bad for small banks, it's bad for credit unions, it's bad for anyone trying to offer an honest product in an honest market," Warren said. "The American people deserve a Congress that worries less about helping big banks and more about helping regular people who have been cheated on mortgages, on credit cards, on student loans, on credit reports."
Obama, you may recall, bypassed the Senate after a similar filibuster in 2011. But with court challenges looming to his recess appointments, he's trying again now that the CFPB has a growing track record as a forceful but measured voice for consumer protection. Among its early achievements, www.ConsumerFinance.gov is now a place where individuals can go to register complaints against a credit-card issuer or a credit reporting agency and expect to get an actual response.
So let's get this straight. We're still struggling through the aftermath of a financial crisis triggered in large part by misguided consumer lending - unrestrained subprime mortgages and loan flipping, "liar loans," and all the rest - that could have been slowed or stopped by better consumer protection. And the Senate GOP wants to undo what so far stands as Dodd-Frank's biggest lasting achievement?
Maybe Gelles should read the Wall Street Journal. Less political rhetoric, more facts. I know, a strange concept here.— verve- Maybe we should stop protecting big banks and their lobbyists and support policies and structures that PROTECT the average consumer?
It never ceases to amaze me that Republicans/conservatives - many of whom would actually BENEFIT from programs that oversee the RIDICULOUS power that large banks and other corporations have in this country - continue to back a political party that DOES NOT CARE about them. Whether it is Tea Party nutjobs or the honest hard-working people of Philly's river wards, what EXACTLY do you gain from supporting a party whose policies EXPLICITLY benefit the rich and elite of American business? Huh?
(bebop slowly shakes his head and walks away...) - Do you mean the same protections that Bill Clinton (D) took away when he signed the 1999 Financial Modernization Act which repealed all FDR's protections contained in the 1933 Glass Stegal Act?
BTW, wasnt it Barney Frank (D) and Chris Dodd (D) that required lenders and banks to loan to subprime borrowers as part of the expansion of the Community Reinvestment Act?
Hypocrite.— Professor1982 - So can I ask a simple question: Did George Bush do anything at all wrong during his 8 years as president? Anything at all? Did he forget to close the Presidential Limo's window all the way and the rain got in? I mean it's clearly the governing mistakes of Democrats that have caused every economic issue in this country. Right? Unnecessary tax breaks, super expansion of the Federal government, illegal and ruinous wars, those were all....wait...wait. Carter's fault? Kennedy's fault? What did George Bush do that was at all wrong during his 8 years that included the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression? — jonline
- It's nice to see a congressperson more interested in protecting consumers than the too-big-to-fail banks that seem to have no problem lobbying for and receiving bailouts & tax breaks & lax regulations & such. Better yet, she's an expert on banking and finance and knows how to foster a healthy system.— knon
- Rightists always take the side of the rich because getting rich is the only thing that matters in their sad lives.
And when they are not wealthy, they look to blame someone else. The fault always is dumped on others who suffer the same fate while the rich parasites on top, the only real cause of their circumstances, laugh all the way to their off-shore, untaxed accounts.
May they be "blessed" with the consequences of their misguided loyalties - with poisoned food, dangerous/deadly products, sham services, and continued theft of their savings by the banksters and Wall Street crooks.— JeffJenk - "Rightists" always take the side of those who dont want to spoon feed off of other people's taxes like parasites. — Professor1982
- This comment has been deleted.— crombola51
- Your $700k number is ridiculous. Substantiate it from legitimate sources or be exposed as another Tea Party hack and fabricator. — Dr Bri
- Doc - you ARE called you ignorant liberal...No so "ridiculous" now is it...fool.
"Warren’s income peaked earlier. She and her husband (also a Harvard Law professor) made $981,000 in 2009 and $954,721 in 2010. In 2011, their combined income dropped to $616,000. Her income comes from teaching and consulting as well as the government salary she drew through mid-2011 as an adviser to the president on consumer affairs, and before that, as leader of a panel overseeing the bank bailout."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/scott-brown-elizabeth-warren-release-tax-returns/2012/04/27/gIQAjGQWlT_blog.html— Professor1982 - Note that the Right only take offense at wealth and high salaries when Democrats earn them.
When the Corporatists and Wall Street wallowers earn more than 10X as much by cheating and stealing from the poor and middle-class, the Right defends it as a desirable result of "free markets."— thatboy - You have to cut the right-wingers a break with respect to Elizabeth Warren. They still are a little upset that their studly himbo Scott Brown went down in flames. Everyone knows that Republicans are admirers of the male form. — Last Man Standing
- the right wing capitulation to wall street is absolutely sickening. the big banks drove our economy off a cliff, nobody got prosecuted for some of the worst crimes in history, and the right wing wants you to believe it was obama's fault and that it somehow has something to do with debt. the right continues to deflect and protect on behalf of wall street. pretty obvious who owns their party— Ryan
- warren is awful, just awful— raynesrock
Reach Jeff at jgelles@phillynews.com.
