The Financial Empire Strikes Back Against Consumer Protections

REPUBLICANS, TEA PARTY, AND LOBBYISTS LOOK TO LET WALL STREET LOOSE AGAIN
 

Fresh off a historic taxpayer bailout of the financial sector that may run upwards of $11 trillion or more, Wall Street, big banks and the financial sector are at it again. Employing its Republican aided legions of lobbyists armed with millions packed in fat suitcases they see themselves in a war. Their sworn enemy, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), that stands like a weary David, nearly beaten down and empty of stones.

Last year as part of the overall plan to reel in the fast and wild times of the financial sector, the Dodd-Frank Financial Protection Act was implemented to prevent future scenarios where taxpayers had to bailout billionaires. A key plank in the Dodd-Frank Act was creation of the CFPB to keep a close eye on financial sector practices that disproportionately exploited the poor and Americans of color.

From its start, the CFPB has faced an unrelenting attack from financial sector lobbyists utilizing millions of dollars to fight tooth and nail to underfund the agency, reduce its impact, and prevent the appointment of strong leadership.

According to Opensecrets.org and the Center for Responsive Politics,  the financial sector has dumped millions into K Street lobbyists to influence Congress and the federal regulators given the task of writing the over 300 rules for Dodd-Frank. JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, the American Bankers Association, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley so far have spent over $20 million lobbying the federal government this year.

Unfortunately, for communities disproportionately affected by the Great Recession, an unsavory byproduct of the financial sectors reckless and predatory practices—it is working.

From unemployment, foreclosures, or loss of wealth, the poor have yet to recover from Wall Street’s doings. Now insurance, financial, and banking sectors seek to make ineffective the watchdog created to monitor them.

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