Why Do Republicans Hate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

Because it’s WORKING.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is working exactly as planned.  And this is why Wall Street gangsters and their prostitutes in Congress have done everything possible to obstruct, derail and sabotage the CFPB.

The CFPB has been collecting people’s complaints about their banks since last year.  After a bank has responded to a complaint, or after fifteen days — whichever comes first — the complaint is posted in a Consumer Complaint Database.

Between March 2012 and July 2013, the CFPB has posted 19,000 complaints.  95% of these complaints have been resolved, for better or worse.  28% of the complaints resulted in some degree of financial compensation by the bank.  Five percent resulted in non-monetary compensation — correcting an error, adjusting the terms of an account, etc.  And about twenty percent of the resolved complaints are still being disputed by the consumer.

It’s a start.

Complaints to the CFPB run the gamut of financial services and problems:  credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, credit reports, debt collectors, etc.  Scott Pluta, the CFPB’s assistant director of consumer response, said:

“Every complaint we receive is important because it helps us identify and prioritize problems.  We know that if we begin to see a disturbing trend among the complaints we handle, we should consider allocating some of our limited resources to combat that particular problem.  The database may not be popular with the financial services industry, but it’s making a real difference in people’s lives and in the marketplace.”

No wonder Republicans hate it.

Wall Street’s Prostitute of the Quarter: Richard Shelby

Senator Richard Shelby (R—Skank) has come up with yet another sleazy method for derailing the Wall Street Reform Act.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act was designed to prevent the banking industry from crashing the global economy again like they did in 2008.  Most Americans don’t want another financial meltdown; Republicans apparently do.

Congressional Republican prostitutes — acting on orders from their Wall Street owners — have repeated tried to sabotage any and all reform of the banking laws (or lack thereof) which led to the 2008 crash.  They tried frantically to prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — which was part of the Wall Street Reform Act — from being created.  When that didn’t work, they vowed to filibuster ANY nominee to head this new agency, knowing that the agency couldn’t function fully without somebody in charge.

And now Wall Street’s favorite call girl, Richard Shelby, has introduced legislation to require a cost-benefit analysis of ALL new financial regulations.  If a financial regulation’s costs outweigh its benefits, it can NOT be implemented.

And who exactly would be doing this “analysis?”  According to a Reuters spokesman, “Quantifying costs and benefits objectively is notoriously difficult and the result tends to depend on who is doing the measuring.”

This phony “cost-benefit” analysis has been a favorite Republican gimmick since at least the early 1990s.  For some odd reason, they only worry about costs versus benefits when it’s a law they don’t want.  I don’t recall the War on Drugs ever being submitted to a cost-benefit analysis.  Or the Right’s constant crackdowns on abortion.  Or Dumbya’s invasion of Iraq…

Online Database for Credit Card Customers’ Complaints

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been collecting people’s complaints about credit card companies, and the bureau is planning to set up a website where the public can view these complaints.  An informed consumer is less likely to be gouged and shat on.

Haven’t we had enough yet?  Gazillions of dollars in hidden fees, interest rates that double or triple without notice and for “reasons” that are flimsy to non-existent — most of these sleight-of-hand ripoffs would be eliminated through the transparency of an online complaint database. 

Cockroaches scurry back into the nearest crack when somebody turns on the lights.  And that’s exactly what sleazy bankers will do when their bait-and-switch “Gotcha!” tactics are displayed in front of God and everyone.

Needless to say, banks and credit card companies are trying to block the CFPB from creating this database.  They don’t want anyone lifting up that rock and showing the public what those slippery creatures are doing underneath it.

If you would like the CFPB to create this online database of credit card customers‘ complaints, please sign this petition.