Community | March 01, 2011 | 11 comments

Republicans "Chip Away" at Consumer Protection Against Banks.

source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/24/news/economy/republicans_target_consumer_bureau/index.htm?cn...

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mitekillem

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/24/news/economy/republicans_target_consu...

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- House Republicans calling for smaller government and less spending have a big new target: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The bureau was the most popular part of the Wall Street reforms passed into law last year. But it was also the most politically controversial, barely emerging after more than a year's worth of legislative wrangling.

The bureau is an independent agency, funded by fees that banks pay to the Federal Reserve. Beginning on July 21, it will be charged with regulating credit cards, mortgages and other financial products like payday loans.

But Republican lawmakers, who've already made good on promises to pass bills to roll back health care reform and undo environmental initiatives, want to take a bite out of the consumer bureau and bring it under their control.

...
"Politicizing the funding of bank supervision would be a dangerous precedent," Warren said in a speech to the Consumer's Union last week. "It would deprive the CFPB of the predictable funding it will need to examine large and powerful banks consistently and to provide a level playing field with their nonbank competitors."

More at link.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/24/news/economy/republicans_target_consumer_bureau/...
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11 comments // Republicans "Chip Away" at Consumer Protection Against Banks.

  • Mark701
    • +2
      Mark701  

    • You really have to wonder about the GOP. What exactly are they looking to achieve? Do they WANT to live in a country plagued with pollution? Do they WANT Wall Street and the banking industry as a whole to be able to continue to function is the same manner that created the housing bubble? Do they WANT to middle class to rebel? Do they WANT our national security and our entire economy jeopardized by our continued dependence of foreign oil? Do they WANT to keep Americans poor and unemployed? These are the things I would expect an enemy of the United States to desire not a party that claims to represent fiscal responsibility and the average Joe. So I've outlined some ideas on why the GOP is attacking the middle class. Feel free to include any others you think of.

      1) "No single raindrop is responsible for the flood" theory.
      Specifically, they are so self centered, so greedy that their only concern is for their piece of the pie. In other words, certain congressmen will do whatever they can for big oil, others for polluting industries, others for corporations that do overseas manufacturing. Individually their action wouldn't have a major impact on America. However when taken collectively we have a major flood.

      2)They don't plan to live here in the future.
      It made no difference to the barbarians that plundered Rome, what happened to Rome because they didn't live there. They took as much as they could hold and brought it back to wherever they called home. Similarly if the GOP is planning to leave the country after they've permitted it's plunder, their actions make sense.

      3)The real GOP(the Eisenhower Republicans) have been phased out and slowly replaced with corporate whores.This is my guess especially given how people like the Koch kids are actively involved in funding anything that eliminates rights and power of Americas middle class. It also ties neatly in with #1 and especially #2 given that the majority of many "American" corporations are neither wholly owned by Americans and have major part of their operations based overseas.

    • 2 years ago
  • mitekillem
    • 0
      mitekillem  
    • Mark701:

      I think it's that Republicans are so unified and focused in their ideology that they are being led around by corporations. Their main goal, back in the day was a noble one: Have a small limited government, allow for a free market, and make people rely upon themselves. Social Security was something that they actually agreed upon, but look at it as a necessary evil.

      A lot of this I get. However the party has become sick and perverse.
      The problem with the free market is it's based on a Capitalist model.
      Capitalism has one goal, get as much money for yourself as possible, and squash the competition. This allows for monopolies. Republicans act toward the benefit of corporations, because they believe they create jobs. -They don't. When you fire 5,000 people, and your stocks rise, your company makes money, including the money saved by laying off workers.
      Capitalism, the way it is in the US, is a cannibalistic monster. It's a snake eating it's own tail, thinking it's eating a smaller snake.

      So focused on their ideology, that they fail to see that they are killing people.
      They starve poor families, tax them more, give them less instead of letting them keep what little money they have and taxing those who have money to spare. They killing them by robbing them of their good health, by stripping them of health coverage. They're killing them by making them work harder for less, and taking away their bargaining rights. And now, they're cutting jobs, and directly feeding our tax dollars to the rich.
      There are rich people in this country who have more money than entire economies of other countries, and pay no taxes.

      I for one, am glad that all of this is happening for the Grand Old Party right now.
      Because once the mask fails to fool anyone the party will be over.
      It's their own fault for not paying attention to what's going on around them.

    • 2 years ago
  • August_K
    • +2
      August_K  

    • http://congress.org

      Stupid Republicans......none of them with economics degrees....they are trying to send us back to the Bush era years where the greedy bankers had a field day ripping off consumers and sent us the whole world into an economic tailspin.

      This is totally unacceptable behavior.
      Apparently paying back the Bankers for their big donations is more important than
      the safety and welfare of the people and our economy!

      What a bunch of IDIOTS!!!!!!!

      Speak up people.......let them know this is unacceptable!
      The list below are the various links at the bottom of the congress.org website.

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    • 2 years ago
  • August_K
    • +2
      August_K  
    • Image

    • Why do men hate Smart Women?
      This reminds me of Brooksley Born and the Agency she headed.
      She warned of the dangers coming if things didn't change and they got her shut down.
      She was right and some of them admit it now but they are still insisting on
      letting the banks be careless again and again.

      "The Warning" was an Excellent piece that can be seen on PBS online.

      "We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. "They were totally opposed to it," Born says. "That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?"

      Greenspan, Rubin and Summers ultimately prevailed on Congress to stop Born and limit future regulation of derivatives. "Born faced a formidable struggle pushing for regulation at a time when the stock market was booming," Kirk says. "Alan Greenspan was the maestro, and both parties in Washington were united in a belief that the markets would take care of themselves."

      "Now, with many of the same men who shut down Born in key positions in the Obama administration, The Warning reveals the complicated politics that led to this crisis and what it may say about current attempts to prevent the next one.

      "It'll happen again if we don't take the appropriate steps," Born warns. "There will be significant financial downturns and disasters attributed to this regulatory gap over and over until we learn from experience."

      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

    • 2 years ago
  • chew_chew
    • +2
      chew_chew  

    • Yeah, so they wanna try the whole deregulation thing again.

      Why? Because they weren't able to completely bankrupt the country last time?

    • 2 years ago
  • Dagum
    • -1
      Dagum  

    • The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is going to be run by the banks. Look where it is nestled into. The fox is going to guard the Hen house.

    • 2 years ago
  • Varex_Sythe
    • +2
      Varex_Sythe  

    • Wow, it hasn't even been five years since banks helped severely fuck up our nations economic status...

      Two questions come to mind.

      Why do these people think that the citizens of the United States have such a bad short term memory?

      Do the citizens of the United States really have such a bad short term memory that this will fly?

    • 2 years ago
  • Arizona_Huey
    • +3
      Arizona_Huey  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      Sadly, because the vast majority of the American people do have very short term memories and incredibly clueless and / or ignorant about who they are voting for and on as reflected in the results of the last elections!!! The politicians ran on this exact platform and they still voted them in. Congrats America - you wanted it, you've got it back. The same government and mindset of the shrub administration that came amazingly close to killing this country has now been placed back in power! Nicely done!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • littlwarrior
  • mitekillem
  • August_K
    • +1
      August_K  
    • mitekillem:

      You forgot the Duped part.
      I was just reading about the fear mongering crap one of the Koch's groups were feeding the tea party voters.
      Crap like the government is going to regulate churches and make everyone install radio controlled thermostats in their houses .......apparently they believed that stupid crap.

    • 2 years ago
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