Count among the things Republicans really hate the idea that the American consumer get a fair shake when dealing with banks and other financial institutions. If it could possibly mean that the banksters make slightly less money, then screw the American people. And if there is a particularly effective advocate for the American people in the fight, she must be destroyed.
That premise is proven by House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus, who famously said back in December, the role of Congress is "to serve the banks."
He has insisted that this is out of legitimate concern that the agency is too powerful, and not part of the Republican campaign to prevent Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren from taking the reins at the agency. (Warren is currently setting up the agency as an Assistant to the President.) “This is not about Elizabeth Warren," Bachus insisted early last month. However, yesterday, during a speech before the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group, Bachus added a line to his pronouncement:
Bachus introduced a bill in March that would replace the post of director with a five-member bipartisan commission, saying the structure imposed by Dodd-Frank places too much power in the hands of one person.
"It has nothing to do with Elizabeth Warren, it really has nothing to do with her," Bachus said.
After a pause, Bachus drew laughs from the bankers when he said, "I will not take a lie detector test."
Asshole. You'll be shocked to find that Bachus is one of the top three recipients of donations in the Congress from the mortgage brokers and accountants, and does pretty damned well with the finance and insurance sectors, too:
Yes, he gets so much from those industries it runs off the side of the chart. When he said that he's in Congress to serve the banks, he meant it. And has been richly rewarded for that service.