"Mick Mulvaney is putting
the interests of predatory lending companies and fraudulent banks ahead of the
interests of consumers."
After weeks of working
tirelessly to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau's (CFPB) ability to defend consumers and roll
back its power to punish criminal banks, White House budget chief Mick
Mulvaney put out a request for
public comment on the bureau's direction under his leadership.
If the overwhelming
majority of responses submitted thus far are any evidence, Americans are
not at all pleased with the CFPB's sharp corporate turn.
"I would request that the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you know, actually protect consumers
instead of kowtowing to banks and other large financial institutions,"
wrote Michael Novak, expressing a sentiment that was common among the dozens of
comments that have been submitted since Mulvaney asked for feedback earlier
this month.
"Clearly, he is a stooge
in the pocket of predatory and negligent companies...and is looking forward to
lining his own pockets with donations and favors from these companies," added another
commenter, referring to Mulvaney. "Banana Republic-style corruption at the
highest level."
As Common Dreams has reported,
Mulvaney's actions since President
Donald Trump controversially placed him in charge of the CFPB clearly
indicate that "consumer protection" is not high on his list of
priorities. Indeed, the bureau's new primary objective is no longer protecting
consumers—it's ensuring
that consumers "have access to markets for consumer financial
products and services."
Meanwhile, Mulvaney has
reportedly dropped probes into Equifax and Golden
Valley Lending, a financial institution that has been accused of charging
950 percent interest rates.
Now Americans are getting a
chance to voice their opposition to these changes to a bureau that, under its
previous leadership, was broadly
popular. The comment period ends April 13. Click here to
tell Mulvaney what you think about the CFPB under his leadership.
What follows is just a small
sample of the more than 70 comments that have been submitted, some of which
were compiled by Splinter's Libby Watson, who observed that
"the public comments so far have been almost exclusively in favor of the
CFPB continuing to levy fines against banks."
This agency started doing
great works on behalf of Main street originally. Then under the present
administration with Mulvaney at the helm, all of the agency is protecting the
banks and Wall street, exactly what it was set up to not do. Just disgusting.
We are paying attention and
want the agency to do its job. Equifax was criminally negligent and careless.
This affects real people and their abilities to move forward with their life.
Do your job. Investigate, hold them to account, and protect the public, who are
at the mercy of the credit score companies.
The CFPB should aggressively
pursue predatory pay-day lenders, big banks abusing their customers, obscene
credit card practices, and more. The fines you have enforced so far don't go
far enough to punish the amoral vampires feeding on the American consumer. But
now that you're being led by one of those vampires I guess that's all going to
change. I'm beyond disappointed in my government and especially Mick Mulvaney.
Mick Mulvaney is putting the
interests of predatory lending companies and fraudulent banks ahead of the
interests of consumers. He's violating the very mission of the bureau he's been
appointed to lead. It's corruption, plain and simple.
I am very much against the
weakening/watering down of the bureau's mission since Mick Mulvaney became
acting head. The fact that a person who declared the CFPB a "sick, sad
joke" has been named acting head of the bureau is a clear-cut example of
regulatory capture. In essence, a fox has been chosen to guard the henhouse.
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