Majority Of Americans Support Strong Consumer Protection Agency: Poll

As of Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is open for business. And many Americans have already expressed their support.

The agency, first conceived of by Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, was created under last summer's financial reform with the aim of protecting consumers from abuses by financial institutions. Republicans, however, have promised to block any nominee to run the CFPB until its powers are scaled back.

The sentiments of Republicans, however, appear to stand in opposition to the sentiments of the American people, according to a new poll by Lake Research Partners.

The poll, sponsored by the AARP, Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending, found that as many as 63 percent of Americans favor more, not less, government oversight of financial companies. Only a small minority of those polled, 25 percent, want the opposite.

Of those polled, 74 percent favored having a single agency focus on protecting consumers from financial organizations. And it's not split down partisan lines, either. Indeed, 68 percent of Republicans feel the same.

The opening of the CFPB comes only one day after Wells Fargo was hit with an $85 million fine for pushing consumers with good credit into purchasing subprime loans that had high interest rates, the largest consumer settlement ever imposed by the Federal Reserve.

Earlier this week, it was announced that President Obama would nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the new government agency, despite Elizabeth Warren long being considered the president's top choice. In a statement to the press, Warren said Cordray would make a "stellar director."

Comments

[hopeisalive]

08:09 AM on 07/23/2011

For those who support the Party of No, please refute, if you can, the statement in this article that states that "the sentiments of Republicans, however, appear to the sentiments of the American people." When we have banks that have played games with mortgages and worked hand in hand with Wall Street and no word of condemnation has been uttered by members of the Party of No, this view seems more accurate than ever and we, The People, need someone or something to stop this.

[DRaymond]

10:13 PM on 07/22/2011

Of course citizens want an agency to look out for what's best for them, but apparently not as much as Banks want a congress that looks out for what's best for them.

[Dosadi]

08:37 PM on 07/22/2011

Since the majority of Americans support this new agency why does the media allow the GOP to lie and say the public doesn't want it?

The problem is increasingly becoming our bought and bribed media.

[DRaymond]

10:11 PM on 07/22/2011

Part of the standards of Journalistic ethics is that so long as there is recognized opposition to something you have an obligation as a journalist to mention it.  Part of what Lee Atwater learned decades ago is that as long as you stay absolutely consistent in your statement the press has to cover you as the opposing viewpoint.

Or as one reporter told me about covering Hurricane Katrina "the only good thing was that nobody insisted that you go find somebody to give the pro-hurricane viewpoint"

[Dosadi]

10:14 PM on 07/22/2011

Very sound thinking. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

[Trittydi]

03:31 PM on 07/22/2011

Yes we do. Don't disappoint us.
*

[Kurfco]

01:28 PM on 07/22/2011

The media is doing a tremendous disservice to the American people in not covering issues like this in more depth. Saying that Democrats support something, while Republicans oppose it does not shed light on any issue. What are Democrats supporting and why? What specifically are Republicans objecting to and why? What is industry against and why? What are the concerns?

We never see any coverage like this. General dumbing down of the media reinforces general dumbing down of the people leads to general dumbing down of the media.

[Kurfco]

01:23 PM on 07/22/2011

...and a majority couldn't solve for the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle or locate Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, on a map.

[Lex Anton]

01:15 PM on 07/22/2011

Traitor to Elizabeth Warren this President is.

[nothingchanges]

12:39 PM on 07/22/2011

"MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SUPPORT STRONG CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY: POLL"

The question is................does that mean anything? Does it matter?

Face it, Congress doesn't listen to the majority, doesn't represent the majority, and no longer works for the majority of Americans.

The Majority of those in Congress represent and work for a very small minority of America's people.

The 1-5% that fund their election campaigns.

In America today, statistics indicate that 9.8 times out of 10, the candidate that spends the most money.....wins.

With the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. Corporations now have more rights and much more power, then any living citizen.

An individual's contributions are heavily regulated and limited by law. Corporate involvement in politics is not.

Hell, they aren't even required to be American Corporations, and they spend millions to influence our elections.

The system we use to finance our elections, is no more (and no less) than legalized bribery, and it shows.

Small wonder congressional performance, and approval ratings, are at historic lows.

We NEED an alternative, to a broken, and corrupt, two party system.

[ALiberalKidd]

05:59 AM on 07/22/2011

Democracy Now-Ralph Nader: Obama is a "Political Coward" for Not Picking Elizabeth Warren to Head Consumer Bureau.

This week, Republicans scored another victory with President Obama’s announcement of his choice to head the bureau. Obama has tapped former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray instead of Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor who first proposed the bureau and has overseen its establishment for the past year. "[Cordray] is no Elizabeth Warren. He doesn’t have her communication skills,” says Nader. “She is a rare find. And by throwing her overboard, Obama has signaled to hundreds of good, smart people all over the country, who would like to turn our government around and make it stand for the people, that they may be too good for the president, they may be too good for the rogue Republicans.”
======================
Aliberalkidd:: Now that Mr Nader has also called President Obama a coward for always caving to cowardly conservatives, maybe now some of Mr Obama's die hard Democratic supporter will start to challenge him.

[Dan Bimrose]

04:56 AM on 07/22/2011

Of course we support a strong agency.

[LightShadow62]

02:58 AM on 07/22/2011

Of course the average consumer loves the idea of an agency looking out for them, unfortunately the GOP has been told by their owners to do everything possible to make sure the agency is aborted before birth.

[teachone]

01:46 AM on 07/22/2011

I support this agency 100%, as do all of my friends and family as well!!!

[nopilikia]

10:21 PM on 07/21/2011

LOL... since when did the adm. and congress give a damn what the majority of Americans support or what? If that were the case........where are the JOBs?

[CSNC]

09:30 PM on 07/21/2011

"Majority Of Americans Support Strong Consumer Protection Agency"

Are you listening, GOP?

Are you listening, DEM?

Are you listening our House and Senate Representatives? If not, then two suggestions for you:

1) Stop calling yourselves our representatives and start using cards (like name cards) on your jackets that list the names of your corporate sponsors -- like they do on race cars for example.

2) Start calling yourselves fascists, because that is the definition of the corporatist state.

H

[Raw Ron]

09:23 PM on 07/21/2011

"68 percent of Republicans feel the same."
I love how this doesn't matter to republican politicians. Their job is to protect the few at the country clubs, damn everyone else.