On September 6th, Senate Democrats will hold a confirmation hearing on Richard Cordray, President Obama’s nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)– a new regulation producing machine created by the Dodd-Franks bill. The Democrat Leadership in Senate is using the hearing to pressure the Republican Leadership to bow, allowing the liberal’s dream of a single agency that can regulate any financial transaction in America to become reality. Without your input and pressure, it might.
As we already know, the CFPB was designed to be a regulatory agency “one like we have not seen before,” according to Senator Chris Dodd. Originated by Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, the CFPB is created to be a “one-stop” shop to regulate all consumer financial products in America – from mom-and-pop store layaway plans to mortgage loans and applications. The Bureau was given unprecedented regulatory powers with no checks and balances while the head of the CFPB is an unelected bureaucrat who can pick and choose what industry to regulate.
Obama’s first pick for this dictatorial position was anti-capitalism crusader Elizabeth Warren who was resoundingly rejected. No matter who the head of this agency becomes, it has too much unmitigated and unaccountable power.
That is why back In May, 44 of the 47 Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, sent a letter to Obama vowing to block any nominee to serve as director of the CFPB absent key changes, including eliminating the director’s position in favor of a board and forcing the agency to be dependent on Congressionally appropriated funds for its operating budget.
Democrats apparently believe that their problem the first time was that they had the wrong nominee to head the agency. So now, President Obama has nominated lesser known but every bit as liberal trial lawyer Richard Cordray to assume the position of dictatorial ruler over US businesses.
Democrats are hoping to use the Sept 6 confirmation hearing and a complicit media to present Cordray as a “compromise candidate” to head the agency gloss over the structural problems with this monster of an agency and force Republicans to confirm him as director. Because if they are successful at getting Cordray confirmed, the Republicans will almost certainly never get the changes needed to reign in this agency.
And though he may be less famous than Warren, make no mistake about it: Cordray is a liberal’s liberal. He is a protégé of Elizabeth Warren and was recommended by her for the position in part because of his record as Attorney General of Ohio. As AG, Cordray fancied himself as Ohio’s version of Elliot Spitzer – suing companies as a way to force settlements – a costly form of regulations. Cordray signed deals with Ohio’s leading trial lawyer firms allowing them to sue on behalf of the state. Giving Cordray the keys to the CFPB is no different than giving them to Warren – who was too liberal to be confirmed by the Senate — or even Ralph Nader. They are cut from the same anti-business, pro-regulation cloth.
Republicans need to hold the line. And activists need to make Cordray as famous as Warren. Because as the economy struggles to survive, the last thing businesses needs is a rouge agency headed by a rouge regulator who can destroy jobs with a stroke of a pen. The CFPB is the rouge agency and Richard Cordray is the rouge regulator.
Big Government
