This Is How Republicans Plan To Destroy Liz Warren's Greatest Achievement

[Triana]

Ever since Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped get the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau off the ground in 2010, Republicans have been trying to shut it down. GOPers drafted legislation to weaken the fledgling agency, which was designed to prevent mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and other financial institutions from screwing average Americans. The measures died. Republicans turned to the courts to gut the bureau. That effort failed. Now that Republicans control both houses of Congress, they have another weapon at their disposal: new subpoena powers they can deploy to blitz the CFPB with document requests.

The goal is obvious: dig out material the GOPers can use to embarrass the agency. And if nothing untoward is discovered, Republican legislators can at least pin down the bureau with onerous paperwork demands. Democrats fear Republicans' new information-gathering abilities will make it easier for the agency's foes to launch witch-hunt style investigations of the CFPB similar to those former House oversight committee chair Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) launched regarding Benghazi and the IRS.

All committees in both the House and the Senate have the right to subpoena federal agencies for information. But until recently, either the most senior committee member from the minority party had to sign off on a subpoena or the entire committee had to vote on the request. In the last Congress, six House committees okayed a rule change giving the committee chair unilateral subpoena power. On Tuesday, the House financial services committee—which has jurisdiction over the CFPB—voted along party lines to grant the same privilege to its Republican chairman, Jeb Hensarling of Texas.

Republicans already have a track record of looking for information that could tarnish the CFPB's reputation, and Democrats fully expect Hensarling to continue down the same path. And now Hensarling, a fierce CFPB critic, will be able to more easily mount politically motivated investigations of the agency.

THE REST:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/cfpb-house-financial-services-subpoena-power

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

1. What's frustrating to me

is it seems there is no plan from the Democratic Party to nullify this crap. We always seem to be a step behind.............

[Triana]

2. I never hear a peep from Democrats on ANYTHING. I hear from Warren and Sanders.

That's IT. WHERE THE HELL are the rest of them?

[midnight]

3. I agree.

[AndyTiedye]

4. There is Nothing We Can Do About It

They won the election, they get to do that for at least two years.
They can also cut off all the funding to the agency, and they will do that too.

[starroute]

5. No, they *don't* simply "get to do that"

Democracy used to have certain ground rules. One was that the majority would respect the minority and not steamroller them. Another was that the majority would play by the existing groundrules and not game them at every opportunity. A third was that if one administration did something, the next administration would abide by it as the will of the people.

The GOP ignores all the old protocols. We may not be able to stop them from trampling democracy into the mud -- but we can sure scream about it at every turn.

[AndyTiedye]

9. Screaming about it is all we can do

and it doesn't change anything.

[starroute]

10. Republicans scream about things very loudly and often effectively

Remember "Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!" ?

Democrats just have no staying power.

[AndyTiedye]

11. Republican Screaming is Very Effective because they own the Media

Nobody can hear us scream.

[Scuba]

6. Must. Protect. Wall. Street.

[RiverLover]

7. R/K!

[bahrbearian]

8. "DEVASTATING DEFEAT!" "WE'RE DOOMED!" "TOTAL EPIC FAILURE!" "THIS IS THE END!" "ALL HOPE IS LOST!"

This message brought to you by Debbie Wasserman- Shultz and the DNC