Warren Responds To Wall Street Attacks On Her And CFPB

The financial moguls of Wall Street have recently funded some ads attacking Senator Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Warren helped create the CFPB to protect American consumers from the financial shenanigans of Wall Street and the giant banks. Now she is eager to defend it from efforts by Wall Street to weaken or eliminate it.

Here is her reply to those attacks, and the effort to weaken the regulations:

When is the last time someone mentioned to you that they really wished banks could load more fine print on credit cards? When did someone say they hoped Wall Street would get another chance to blow up the mortgage market? When did you hear that customers were hoping for another chance to get cheated by a payday lender?  

Never?

So why is a right-wing group spending $500,000 to attack me and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? And why right now?  

Think about this: Before the end of the year, Congress must pass two pieces of legislation, a highway bill and a government funding bill. That’s like ringing the dinner bell for the Wall Street banks. The lobbyists are swarming this place.

Two bills are moving in Washington, and the big banks see a chance to weaken the CFPB and the Dodd-Frank oversight rules. Their plan is to quietly slip the rollbacks into the legislation that must pass, like the government funding bill. That way Wall Street gets what it wants, and their friends in Congress get lots of cover when they vote for it.

That’s what those crazy, Commie dictator attack ads are all about. Wall Street knows that if they can soften up support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Republicans – and honestly, some Democrats – will feel a little safer voting to weaken the rules that protect consumers and hold big banks accountable. Since closed-door discussions are going on right now, this is the time.

If Republicans really think it’s time to talk about financial reform, then let's not do it through shady attack ads funded by secret, unnamed corporations. Let’s put it all out on the table. And let’s have everyone in Congress – Democrats and Republicans – declare publicly where they stand.  

I say: Bring It On.

If the financial industry wants to push rollbacks, then I want to make it easier to send bankers to jail when they launder money for drug cartels, or rig foreign exchange markers, or cheat pension funds out of desperately needed money. If the financial industry wants to chip away at the CFPB and financial oversight, then I want to have a serious, on-the-record conversation about breaking up the biggest banks.

Let’s put it to the American people: Are you ready to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Dodd-Frank, to give the biggest banks in the country more chances to take more risks and leave you holding the bag? Or is it time for a little more accountability – accountability for large financial institutions that month after month are in the headlines for breaking the law?

We need to vote on a highway bill. We need to vote on a government funding bill. And if there’s anyone in Congress – Republican or Democrat – who thinks they can slip goodies for Wall Street into these bills without a fight, they are very, very wrong.

Elizabeth