Dear Senator Collins,
So many issues...but let's just focus on the CFPB for a moment, the agency Musk has wanted to delete, the one that you voted to establish but have also expressed concerns about.
It’s a really a David and Goliath story. The U.S. financial industry controls 22.3 trillion dollars (2022 figures) in assets and puts huge investments into lobbying Congress and the president, developing new “products’, and squelching resistance through fine print agreements and forced mediation. After the financial collapse of 2007-2008, millions of Americans lost their homes. Let me say that again, millions of Americans lost their homes.
The government gave multi-billion dollar bailouts to some of the largest financial institutions. Consumer advocates pushed for some relief for homeowners with some minor success but were able to push Congress and the President to create the CFPB to protect consumers going forward and to impose stricter regulation on the finance industry.
The CFPB has been remarkably effective in protecting consumers from fraud and unfair lending practices, returning more than $21 billion to consumers since its founding in late 2010. Follow the money in both directions. Consumers have been protected from fraud on so many level. Banks have been forced to comply with fair lending practices. Just look at the lobbying and political contributions of the financial industry to Congress and you’ll see how effective the CFPB has been.
You and I both know that the budget oversight argument – bringing the CFPB’s budget back under Congress is really a red herring. Congress can hardly pass a budget and will hardly resist the lobbying efforts and big donor money of the financial industry who would like nothing more than to gut the CFPB. If only conscience will stand for the people’s needs against those forcces – well, we’ve seen how that is going with the current administration’s excesses.
The CFPB has done heroic work against incredible odds. I didn’t see you at the demonstration outside the CFPB’s offices yesterday vowing to support their work and you should be supporting them. Where’s the advocacy for us as consumers, Senator?
Don’t let yourself be distracted by rather weak technical arguments. Just look at Musk and Vought’s conflict of interest in accessing their data, forcing their work stoppage. Where’s the money? If this isn’t a clear violation of democracy that we must stop, God help us.
