She tells Republicans to choose: Banks — or families?
It’s time for senators — especially the Republicans — to square their upcoming votes on financial reform with their long-professed desire to protect families, said consumer advocate and federal bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday in an interview with the Huffington Post.
“Everyone in Washington claims to be on the side of families and to support reform,” said Warren, a member of the 2010 TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people. “But the test is who votes to paper over problems with another regulatory system designed to fail and who votes for real Wall Street accountability even if it means that some donors will be disappointed.
“I’m tired of hearing politicians claim to support families and, at the same time, vote with the big banks on the most important financial reform package in generations. I’m deep-down tired of it.”
Of all the proposals in the 1,400-page Senate bill attempting to reform Wall Street and protect American consumers, none is more contentious than the one calling for the creation of a consumer-focused agency dedicated to protecting borrowers from abusive lenders.
Reform-minded Democrats want a powerful independent entity able to defend powerless families from the banks and financial firms that squeeze profits out of customers through tricks, traps and outright predatory loans.
Moderates want to say that they voted for a bill that protects consumers — even if it really doesn’t.
Republicans profess a desire to protect consumers, acknowledging regulators’ past failures, but they also don’t want to stem the flow of credit or needlessly harm lenders’ ability to make a buck.
Britain has the BBC, which is essentially an independent body that gets it money from the government. Yet, the government doesn’t control the BBC. Other European have this arrange for a variety of such bodies.
This is exactly what is needed for a consumer protect body. Yet, putting it either in the Fed or an insider body will not protect consumer particularly when the Republican will regain the White House. The EEO office under Bush disappear in action.
The financial reform bill doesn’t have a provision for real independence.