Dilbert (Scott Adams) cartoon via powerlineblog.com
Clarice Feldman closes her Sunday column at American Thinker with this summary:
Probably the most important
development this week is the effective end of the CFPB (Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau), a power grab by Democrats led by Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren, which gives a single director who can only be fired for cause
by the president (a structure designed to operate outside Congressional or
executive control) power to regulate mortgages, credit cards, and retirement
and pension investments -- in sum, all consumer financial transactions. Warren
originally wanted to run this outfit, but when it was clear she’d never get
Congressional approval, Richard Cordray became the one-man credit czar. Last
October the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that placing so much
power in a single commissioner not answerable to the president was
unconstitutional.
The Obama Administration sought
en banc review by the entire Circuit
Court Panel. In March, the new administration reversed the government’s
position. The entire panel heard the case in May. While the decision in that
case is still pending, Cordray this week resigned, and the president appointed
in his place OMB chief Mike Mulvaney as interim head. Mulvaney strongly opposed
the creation of this bureau. The President thus has now put in place someone
who can be counted on to undo the Democrats’ machinations to control all our
financial transactions by the fiat of a single man. By their own hands, they
created a situation they are powerless to undo -- just as by tarring Judge
Moore with suspect accusations they open themselves to the same
treatment.
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