A news article suggesting that the Obama administration is comprising on a proposed new agency dedicated to protecting consumers of financial products outraged some Washington Post readers.
The newspaper reported Thursday that the administration is open to the possibility that the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency be housed within the Treasury Department as opposed to being a stand-alone entity, which is what the administration has long called for. The Huffington Post reported Feb. 9 that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) was likely to propose this arrangement in his updated financial reform bill, and that consumer groups were actually not too alarmed.
Regardless of whether it's housed within Treasury or exists as a separate agency, it can still be vested with sufficient independence and power to meet the principles of an independent agency, supporters say.
The Obama administration stressed Thursday that it is still committed to an independent consumer agency. The House of Representatives passed a bill in December calling for a new, stand-alone agency.
But news of another Obama "compromise" infuriated some Washington Post commenters.
"It's the strongest anti-Obama string from the left I have seen in almost three years of reviewing comments," wrote Doug Feaver, who runs the comments blog for the paper. "Several readers compare this with Obama's abandonment of the so-called public option in the health care reform debate and ask themselves why they voted for him."
dolph924 said, "So what else is new -- the wimpy professor is once again letting the GOP and the DINOs [Democrats In Name Only] push him around."
mimosa1 said, "Yet another great promise bites the dust from the comic economic team from the Obama team. Dems are just the weakest, lamest little weasels, they are [R]epublican enablers ... that's their only role in our ungovernable govt..."
farhorizons wrote, "Of course he's going to bend. Why are we not surprised... Obama is a true believer in the "Anything is better than nothing" creed. Sometimes it's necessary to fight for something one believes in, but Obama doesn't seem to believe in anything enough to fight for it. Except, of course, his election."
Feaver closed with a comment from bodgerslick, whose views Feaver wrote "are a pretty good summary of what the majority in this comment string had to say":
"So much for real financial reform. Obama concedes again. What won't this President accept half a loaf of? Can he not pass any legislation he finds necessary without it being diluted to the point of little effectiveness. The longer this goes on the more of a failed Presidency everyone sees."