Earlier this week, Senator Ted Cruz and several of his Republican colleagues introduced a bill to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This comes on the heels of Jeb Hensarling – the Republican Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee – penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week calling the CFPB a form of “tyranny” that has “eroded freedom” and “must go.”
When these Republicans rant and rave about the CFPB, I wonder if they have ever talked to anyone about the agency other than the big bank lobbyists that drop by their offices and fill their campaign coffers. I wonder, for instance, if they’ve talked to some of the servicemembers who have benefitted from the agency’s efforts to crack down on financial scams targeting members of the military and to provide financial education to servicemembers looking to make smart decisions for themselves and their families.
Senator Jack Reed – the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee – recently asked the senior enlisted advisor from each military service for their thoughts about the CFPB, and each of them praised the agency for the work it has done on behalf of the servicemembers they represent. Take a look at the video. Good luck to Senator Cruz, Congressman Hensarling, or anyone else who tries to tell any of these brave men, to their faces, that the CFPB should be eliminated.