House GOP Tries To Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Republicans fought tooth and nail to prevent the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  And no wonder, since its creation it has done a great deal to help consumers (see here, here, and here for examples).  Well the Republicans aren’t impressed with protecting consumers and today they are marking up not one, but six bills to gut the agency.  Americans for Financial Reform explains the problems with these bills:

We see the CFPB as an agency seriously and responsibly doing the job Congress gave it: making
consumer financial markets fairer and more transparent; putting money back in the pockets of
members of the public who were fleeced by illegal conduct, and policing rules of the road that
make the financial system work better for responsible businesses and responsible consumers
alike. Obstructing reasonable regulation only serves the interests of the worst elements of the
financial industry, and encourages law breaking.

Having failed to kill the CFPB in its crib, the Republicans are now trying the “death by a thousand cuts” strategy.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.