Say goodbye to all that consumer financial protection we've enjoyed in the past few years. Following the announcement from current Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray that he's stepping down, popular vote loser Donald Trump can swoop in and destroy the agency.
He apparently intends to do so by naming Mick Mulvaney, former House Republican maniac and current director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the interim head of the agency. That would avoid a nasty confirmation fight for a new appointee and let Republicans get down to destroying the agency immediately. Which of course they're going to do. Mulvaney has called the CFPB "a sad, sick joke."
The goal is to hit the ground running in overhauling an agency that some Republicans have called corrupt and that GOP lawmakers widely blame for burdening lenders with unnecessary red tape. It could be months before Trump nominates a permanent CFPB director and the Senate confirms his selection.
Under a federal vacancies law, Trump can replace an outgoing director temporarily with someone from another agency who has already won Senate approval. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has also been considered to run the CFPB on a temporary basis, said one of the people who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.
That "sick joke" of a bureau has succeeded in securing $12 billion in relief recovered for nearly 30 million consumers. It's also cracked down on irresponsible mortgage practices, and has provided a means for more than 1.3 million people to level complaints against financial services companies that have been trying to cheat them. None of that will be allowed to stand if Republicans have their way.
Because as their tax cuts plans attest, Republicans don't care about the middle class. The only class that matters to them is the donor class.