The Senate rejected Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to head the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There was little mystery to the vote -- 44 Republicans pledged in May to block his nomination. The final tally was 53-45, with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine voting "present." Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, facing the bureau's inventor Elizabeth Warren, was the lone dissenting GOP vote.
Republicans don't like the agency, so they've fought to hamper it by refusing to approve any one as its Director. Once again, they've made new rules and confirm they'll do anything to protect the rich and stick it to the middle class.
Among their demands: the bureau should be led by a commission, not an individual; it should be not have its own source of funding from the Federal Reserve; and it should be subject to Senate committee oversight. It's clear that they want to control the agency and intend to try and be in position to minimize it's effectiveness. After all, why would they want this agency to be in a position to bite the hands that feed them.
So far, Democrats haven't budged on any of those demands -- setting up a fight over public opinion that Obama didn't shy away from at his speech in Kansas,
"Every day we go without a consumer watchdog is another day when a student, or a senior citizen, or a member of our armed forces … could be tricked into a loan that they can't afford -- something that happens all the time," he said. "And the fact is that financial institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. And I intend to make sure they do. And I want you to hear me, Kansas: I will veto any effort to delay or defund or dismantle the new rules that we put in place."
Stay the course Mr. President... the American public need the CFPB. Once again the Republicans have favored the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor.
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