The party of the "populist" teahadists is now figuring out how best they can continue to allow Wall Street to trample on the American people by gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
A House Republican on the Financial Services committee has introduced legislation that would make it easier for Congress to hamstring, or defund, the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The Bureau is currently housed within the Federal Reserve and is guaranteed a percentage of the Fed's budget, with the option of asking Congress for more money. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) proposes moving it into the Department of Treasury, where Congress would have complete control over its purse strings.
In a brief interview Tuesday, Neugebauer was pretty candid about this.
"Moving it on budget over to the Treasury where it's subject to appropriations, we can have some say-so on how big this organization gets and some of their activities," Neugebauer said. The goal, he said, is to enhance oversight, and limit the agency's size. "When it resides in the Fed, then, we really don't have that opportunity."
One of the most critical aspects of the CFPB is that it is not in Treasury, where it would be subjected to the political whims of a Congress that has more allegiance to Wall Street than Main Street. Its independence from Congress is the key to its success, a fact undoubtedly not lost on House Republicans.