Dems See Opportunity In GOP Attempt To Curtail Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Surprised Democrats think Republicans are giving them a gift for the first birth Thursday of the new consumer financial watchdog: a chance to remind Americans how much they hate bankers and love the agency that is supposed to keep them in check.

House Republicans will bring to the floor a measure billed as improving transparency and oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but which the White House said Wednesday would "expose American consumers and the nation's economy to the same risks that led to the 2008 financial crisis."

House Democrats are salivating over the day's expected debates because GOP leaders agreed to allow votes on 11 separate amendments -- many of them by Democrats.

And while the Democrats expect to lose the floor fight, there's little to no chance the Senate will pass the measure there. In the meantime, Democrats will cast the GOP as protectors of the people who wrecked the economy, and the enemy of extremely popular efforts to restrain Wall Street.

In fact, one senior aide couldn't believe the House leaders were giving them the chance, suggesting it's happening because members beholden to the Tea Party are determined to have the unpopular fight.

"I think they're not just drinking the Tea, they're smoking it over there," the aide said.

Among the 11 amendments are several that attempt to stop the bill from turning the agency into a less powerful commission and from making it easier for other regulators to overturn CFPB rules.

The architect and creator of the agency, Elizabeth Warren, was passed over to head the new watchdog agency in favor of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, but Warren was given a Biblical sendoff by Democrats in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office Wednesday.

"We had Genesis. Now we're going to have Exodus, but it's going to be followed by Numbers," said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Comments

[Anybodyseenthepopos]

12:57 AM on 07/22/2011

Only a member of the TeaParty would gleefully trot up the steps to the Podium to accept her Darwin award.
The overreach amazes.

[Randolph Greer]

01:28 PM on 07/21/2011

Thank God for the House Republicans !!!!! They are going to cause a depression and take the Republican Party with it . Now , they send another gift to Pelosi who is one of the few Democrats who will actually accept it . I wish all the Democrats in the Senate would just stop talking and let Sanders do all the talking for them . God knows , the people might start to think that Bernie is a Democrat too. It can only help them . Harry !!!!! You and the other Democrats sit down and shut up , people might think you guys are Democrats !!!!!!!!

[HerzogD]

12:14 PM on 07/21/2011

Every time a Republican speaks or votes Democrats have an opportunity! Waiting for the party to come to this realization and exploit it. I won't hold my breath.

[Brian Gilmer]

04:02 PM on 07/21/2011

Democrats have been staying out of the fray because Republicans have been doing a pretty good job of imploding on their own.

[HerzogD]

04:18 PM on 07/22/2011

But they’re not imploding where it matters, the ballot box. The only people who see them as imploding are rational people paying attention like you and me. We are small fraction of the voting bloc and the GOP knows this. They can continue their lunacy without paying a political price. Democrats have an obligation to bring America’s attention to it in a meaningful way. Not like Obama (i.e., - “we have differences we can overcome if we work together”), but something along the lines of “It’s time to stop beating around the bush. These people are hurting this country with continued support of failed arguments.”

[seawillow]

12:12 PM on 07/21/2011

Is there any basis for a belief that politicians will act well?
The GOP is proposing EXACTLY what the Democrats proposed several months ago.
But what matters to them is the up-coming name-calling finger-pointing war.

[MarkInEugene]

11:53 AM on 07/21/2011

The Republican's are behaving absolutely unconscionable. All America heard during the summer of 2008 collapse of the financial sector was:

1) Wall Street cannot police itself
2) Unbridled free markets eventually become corrupt
3) The foxes are in the hen house.
4) You cannot have stability in the markets without some regulation.
5) This market went to heck because of the lack of regulation.

After all the admonitions about not enough regulation and the permanent catastrophic loss of retirement equity in their homes for millions of middle class Americans, the Republican Party is setting up the Middle Class to be the fall-guy during the next collapse and too-big-to-fail bailout.

[burnking1]

01:59 PM on 07/21/2011

you should look up the vast amount of regulation bush enacted. the lack of regulatioon in the housing market was due to clinton. wall street is a friend to both parties.

[Brian Gilmer]

03:51 PM on 07/21/2011

You have got to be kidding about the regulations passed during the Bush administration. During the crisis the head of the SEC said both that they did not need any money or statutory authority to deal with what was going on in the markets. President Bush pushed for an increase in home ownership as part of his "Ownership Society" initiative. It was the Bush Administration that backed off prosecutions of the financial industry, that is why there are so few criminal indictment as compared to Enron.

[Anybodyseenthepopos]

01:02 AM on 07/22/2011

Bush removed 500 of the Gov lawyers who were supposed to keep those shenanigans from happening and put them on anti-terror. Do you know how long it took him to rehire and or replace them? NEVER. He removed the watchdogs completely.

[Paul Sta]

11:14 AM on 07/21/2011

This is all becoming extremely tiresome, UNLESS Govt is willing to hold banks and WS accountable for their part in causing the crisis, its all just worthless.

Govt needs to show they will hold criminals accountable.

[pinkindie]

11:46 AM on 07/21/2011

It's just unbelievable that I could go to jail for a baggie of weed and these criminals get off after the biggest heist in world history.

[Paul Sta]

12:00 PM on 07/21/2011

Just imagine if you tried to cash a forged check, and then committed perjury in front of a judge. Its an embarrassment.

[Brian Gilmer]

03:53 PM on 07/21/2011

It is worse then that. The Government goes to banks and asks them to investigate themselves to see if any criminal activity has occurred.

[JonBFertippton]

11:11 AM on 07/21/2011

Elizabeth Warren for Senator, 2012 and President 2016!!! Unleash this woman for the sake of everything in the USA that is non-corporatist.

[treadway123]

02:18 PM on 07/21/2011

I would be in favor of that! She can take down brown in 2012, an aim at the presidency in 1016! she has been in the lime light an she appears tough/ready.

[homer2000]

10:44 AM on 07/21/2011

Everything is opportunity for them. This is the land of opportunities. E.g. cut "entitlements" blaming Rs. They are so flexible that being r---d by Rs they do not feel a thing.

[BOOWAH]

10:38 AM on 07/21/2011

Republicans are anti human rights on everything they attempt to legislate! In fact, a default will make them Anti American also! This party has gone bad! They have been infected with a flesh eating virus by the Tea Party, a virus that slakes it's insiduous appetite with the elderly, consuming organized labor for dessert, and picking it's teeth with minorities!

[mavissue]

10:33 AM on 07/21/2011

Are you kidding me.....how would they react if someone was digging into their pockets.......They would cry and say "why wasn't I alerted"...... Deregulation is one thing what got us into our financial break down

[JD294]

10:13 AM on 07/21/2011

Anyone tried to comment on the administration of this site? Maybe depending upon key word, your comment evaporates as you post it.

[gravityhunter]

10:27 AM on 07/21/2011

I can't post ANYtime theres a moderator.........

[JD294]

10:10 AM on 07/21/2011

test?

[pleasantlyny]

09:58 AM on 07/21/2011

How does the GOP get poor and middle class people to vote for them?

I mean you had a GOP guy apologizing to BP.... WHAT? You have the GOP openly campaiging to cut medicare but give MORE tax breaks to the wealthy. Now yo uhave the GOP fighting to stop a new agency called "consumer protection agency".... Thats what we all are.... CONSUMERS!

How does the GOP do it?

[Bizmark]

01:09 PM on 07/21/2011

The GOP propaganda appeals to racism, fundamentalist Christian beliefs, American Exceptionalism, and that lingering fear of the Commies. What is truly exceptional about America is the number of people to whom this garbage is still a powerful argument.

[pleasantlyny]

02:53 PM on 07/21/2011

Funny thing is most people do not even know where the phrase American Exceptionalism came from or what it really means.

[Not That Far Left]

09:51 AM on 07/21/2011

Elizabeth Warren was not passed over. She was given the option to set it up or head it up. She wanted to make sure it was set up properly.

[knerd]

09:51 AM on 07/21/2011

GOP keeps on giving, but Democrats don't open the gift.

[kansas ham on wry]

10:48 AM on 07/21/2011

Nailed it. The regressives are so out of control that the response practically writes itself. But call the 'opposition' Corporocrat or Scaredy-crats or Capitulo-crats - their refusal to even consider the logical progressive response makes them complicit in the problem.