OMB Director and chair of the important Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Mick Mulvaney all but told the Senate that he does not have to talk to them. Elizabeth Warren destroyed him as she made him seem like the intransigent and insensitive public servant who cares nothing about average Americans. She did it factually and beautifully.
Mulvaney does not like the idea of having the CFPB likely because it puts the interest of consumers ahead of businesses who scam them. It is hard to believe anyone could be against the agency.
“While I have to be here by statute, I don’t think I have to answer your questions,” Mulvaney told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. “If you take a look at the actual statute that requires me to be here, it says that I ‘shall appear’ before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the Senate. And I’m here and I’m happy to do it.”
Watch Elizabeth Warren neuter Mick Mulvaney
.@MickMulvaneyOMB has been bringing up my name a lot lately when talking about the @CFPB. But what he doesn’t get is that this isn’t about me. It’s about the millions of Americans who want someone to go after the companies that cheated them. pic.twitter.com/FFNuxFU0rD
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 12, 2018
Elizabeth Warren was having none of it. The fact is, she did not need him to testify, she had the data. His caustic behavior and lack of interest in consumers, the average American citizen, enhanced her words and she used her platform effectively.
“Here’s what you don’t get, Mr. Mulvaney—this isn’t about me,” she said. “You’re hurting real people to score cheap political points.”
Warren pointed to a scammed soldier’s father sitting in the audience at the hearing. If Mulvaney had “gotten what [he] wanted” and eliminated the bureau — as he voted repeatedly to do while a member of the House — the man’s son would still be getting exploited, she said.
She then ticked through successful CFPB cases one by one, asking Mulvaney each time where the money the bureau had recouped would be today if the agency didn’t exist. She swatted away his attempts to say other regulators with jurisdiction might have brought the same action.
“Oh I see, they could have brought the actions — that’s the same agencies that didn’t bring those actions before the crash of 2008 and that didn’t bring this particular case,” Warren said of a CFPB case against Citigroup.
“Let’s not kid ourselves — let’s not pretend like you hope that some other agency would do that work, Mr. Mulvaney,” Warren added. “I have a list of 11 bills that you supported during your time in Congress that would have made it harder for states and other federal agencies to protect consumers and to hold cheaters accountable.”
Eradicating the damage that the Trump administration caused in 16 months and counting will take years to eradicate. One hopes the bleeding will stop after the 2018 election.