The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) created by last summer’s Dodd-Frank “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection” bill is scheduled to open its doors today, but there’s a bump in the road: those accursed Republicans won’t let Obama place its Director!
The choice of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head a new federal consumer-protection agency did not pacify Senate Republicans, who vowed to fight his nomination until President Barack Obama agrees to revise the powers of the bureau.
Lucky timing for the president, who can only avoid for so long the Democrats’ refusal to produce a budget, let alone try to balance it. An array of talking heads appear content to treat the creation of another federal agency as pragmatism in action, supporting big government until the Wile E. Coyote “splat” goes up at the foot of the cliff.
Why is the G-No-P fighting the CFPB, aside from their deep-seated racism? Using one decent idea – simplified credit card and mortgage paperwork – as sugar, Democrats are pushing a permanent, ill-defined bureaucracy about which we can be sure of only two things:
- The CFPB will spend bushels of money.
- Some or all of the CFPB’s rules will have severe consequences.
It’s Obamacare all over again… demagogue an issue, torch a strawman opposed to all regulation, and write 2,000 pages of red tape behind closed doors. The media cheers a noble cause, while more serious problems (in this case, Fannie, Freddie, and mandates in the name of social justice) continue pushing us toward the abyss.
At least we know Richard Cordray is a moderate; once during his term as Attorney General he refused to make a ruckus over an obvious racket:
“We believe these lawsuits do not have any legal merit whatsoever,” Cordray said during a news conference today. “We will not be joining these lawsuits.”
Naturally, the suit Cordray deemed meritless was the states’ challenge to the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” otherwise known was Obamacare. Cordray’s give-no-quarter approach to private industry – coupled with an inclination to let the federal government trample citizens while wasting trillions – will fit in nicely when President Obama appoints him during the next Congressional recess!
Not convinced that skepticism of Czar Cordray’s new agency is warranted? I can’t think of a better argument against the CFPB than simply repeating the primary co-sponsors’ names: Barney Frank. Chris Dodd. Thanks, Mr. President, but no thanks.
Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart
Cross-posted at that hero and Columbus Tea Party.
