FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2011 |
Contact: Zach Hudson, Comm. Dir., NSDP
(702) 737-8683 |
Heller, Romney, Wall Street Execs Rejoice As Senate Blocks Wall Street Watch Dog Chief
Las Vegas, NV – You could almost hear the cheers all the way from Wall Street after unelected Senator Dean Heller and Washington Republicans blocked Richard Cordray’s nomination to run President Barack Obama’s Wall Street watch dog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mitt Romney and Heller were leading the charge to kill this nomination.
Why? Not because they found Cordray’s qualifications objectionable. But because they oppose the very idea of a watch dog agency holding their buddies on Wall Street accountable.
This should come as no surprise from a Wall Street executive like Mitt Romney, who laid off 1,700 workers in order to make a buck, or Dean Heller, who proudly voted to gut Wall Street reform as a member of Congress.
So thanks to Romney and Heller the score so far today is Wall Street: 1, Nevada’s Middle-Class: 0. Payday Loan Sharks can continue to stiff consumers with exorbitant rates, as that leg of consumer protection cannot go into effect (as part of the Dodd-Frank legislation) until a Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is confirmed.
“Mitt Romney and Dean Heller sold out Nevada’s struggling middle-class families in order to protect their friends on Wall Street,” said Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Zach Hudson. “Despite Nevada having the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the country thanks to Wall Street abuse, Romney and Heller led the charge to weaken the watch dog agency charged with holding reckless financial institutions accountable. Today’s vote shows their priorities are upside-down: siding with Wall Street at the expense of struggling Nevada families on Main Street.”
Background:
Romney oversaw 1,700 layoffs in a business deal as head of Bain Capital. But an examination of the Dade deal, which Mr. Romney approved and presided over, shows the unintended human costs and messy financial consequences behind the brand of capitalism that he practiced for 15 years. At Bain Capital’s direction, Dade quadrupled the money it owed creditors and vendors. It took steps that propelled the business toward bankruptcy. And in waves of layoffs, it cut loose 1,700 workers in the United States, including Brian and Christine Shoemaker, who lost their jobs at a plant in Westwood, Mass. Staggered, Mr. Shoemaker wondered, “How can the bean counters just come in here and say, Hey, it’s over?” [New York Times, 11/12/11]
Columnist John L. Smith: Heller Thinks Foreclosure Crisis Should Be Left To The Private Sector To Fix. In July 2011 Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith wrote, “On his website, Heller tells us where his heart is at on the issue. He cares deeply, but not enough to turn the wheels of the federal government to roll to the rescue of suffering homeowners… Yes, but what is he going to do about it? ‘We need to re-establish a housing market that has long-term stability in which private capital, not the federal government, is the primary source of mortgage financing. ‘Any financial regulatory reform bill in the future should stop taxpayer-funded bailouts, make further reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and help address the struggling housing market which is especially problematic in Nevada.’ In other words, the problem should be left up to the private sector to fix.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/23/11]
Heller Voted to Protect Wall Street Agenda. In 2010, Heller voted against overhauling the regulation of the financial services industry, to protect consumers from practices that could threaten the economy. The bill aimed to strengthen the government’s ability to prevent future bailouts by giving the government strong new powers to restrain or dissolve large firms who failure could threaten the economy. The overhaul measure would create new regulatory mechanisms to deal with the risks posed by very large financial firms, create a new federal agency to oversee consumer financial products, and force banks and other financial institutions to hold more capital to protect against future financial upheaval. The bill would bring the $600 trillion derivatives market under federal regulation for the first time and give company shareholders and regulators greater say on executive pay packages. The bill passed, 237-192. [CQ Today, 6/30/10; HR 4173, Vote #413, 6/30/10]
Heller’s Spokesman Said He Would Not Vote To Confirm Richard Cordray As Director Of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In December 2011 the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote, “Heller does not plan to vote for Cordray, spokesman Stewart Bybee said. The Nevadan met with the nominee, ‘and they had a good discussion,’ Bybee said. The problem is not Cordray but how the consumer agency was put together, he said.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 12/5/11]
Cordray’s Appointment Critical To Allowing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau To Begin Work Supervising Payday Lenders, Debt Collectors, Credit Reporting Agencies And Private Student Lenders. In December 2011 the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote, “The Senate has set a vote Thursday to confirm former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the components of the Dodd-Frank law that was enacted last year to reform Wall Street practices. The bureau opened in July but is unable to fully carry out its job without a director, White House officials said. The agency is unable to fully supervise nonbank financial services such as payday lenders, nonbank mortgage companies, debt collectors, credit reporting agencies and private student lenders, the officials said.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal,12/5/11]
Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese: “These Institutions Affect The Daily Livelihood Of Tens Of Millions Of Americans. Without A Director To The Agency, You Don’t Have A Cop On The Beat Looking At These Institutions And Taking Steps On Behalf Of Consumers.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 12/5/11]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2011 |
Contact: Eric Koch
702-675-6711 |
BERKLEY TO HELLER: STOP THE EXCUSES, STAND UP TO WALL STREET
BLASTS HELLER FOR BLOCKING WALL STREET WATCH DOG THIS AM
WASHINGTON – Today, Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley released the following statement after unelected Senator Dean Heller voted to block Richard Cordray’s nomination to the new Wall Street Watch Dog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The nomination failed 53-45.
“As Nevada’s middle-class families struggle to make ends meet, all we hear from Dean Heller is excuse after excuse for why he can’t hold Wall Street accountable. Time to stop the excuses, Dean! After voting to gut historic Wall Street reform legislation and blocking the new Wall Street Watch Dog agency from doing its job, it’s clear that Dean Heller is willing to throw Nevada’s middle-class under the bus to protect his millionaire Big Bank buddies.”
USA Today Rips Apart Dean Heller’s Argument for Voting Against Wall Street Watch Dog Richard Cordray:
KEY POINT: For example, critics say the consumer bureau somehow isn’t accountable and can do whatever it likes. In fact, it’s the only banking regulator whose rules can be vetoed by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of the government’s top financial regulators. Critics insist it’s dangerous and unusual that the consumer bureau is run by a single director instead of a multimember commission, but that’s how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a key bank regulator, has operated since 1863. Commissions are more easily hobbled by members who seek to undermine them.
The solution, the GOP senators say, is to make the bureau more accountable to Congress. Quick now: Everyone who trusts members of Congress to write rules, with little public scrutiny, that are disliked by the institutions that fund their campaigns, raise your hands. Those would be the same institutions that want the agency weakened.
No hands? Didn’t think so.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2011-12-07/Confirm-consumer-protection-bureau-director/51721834/1
Editorial: Confirm consumer protection bureau director
The consumer bureau, created in the wake of the economic devastation of 2008, is a central part of reforms designed to rein in the bad actors who caused so much misery by writing bad mortgages, creating exotic and dangerous financial products, and otherwise preying on the public. It is specifically charged with preventing financial institutions from marketing deceptive products and forcing them to clearly explain the loans, credit cards, mortgages and other products they do offer.
Given the misery the country has suffered from the government’s failure to monitor such practices, it seems a sensible addition. But it is one of the agencies Republicans in Congress most love to hate. They fought its creation, and having lost they’ve made every effort to hobble it. Today, they are expected to reject President Obama’s nominee to head the agency, not because he is objectionable but because the agency is. So they want to starve it, along with other elements of financial reform. “The less we fund those agencies, the better America will be,” Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell declared in June.
While GOP critics say soothingly that they’re merely trying to make the consumer agency more accountable, they clearly aim to undercut it.
For example, critics say the consumer bureau somehow isn’t accountable and can do whatever it likes. In fact, it’s the only banking regulator whose rules can be vetoed by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of the government’s top financial regulators. Critics insist it’s dangerous and unusual that the consumer bureau is run by a single director instead of a multimember commission, but that’s how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a key bank regulator, has operated since 1863. Commissions are more easily hobbled by members who seek to undermine them.
The solution, the GOP senators say, is to make the bureau more accountable to Congress. Quick now: Everyone who trusts members of Congress to write rules, with little public scrutiny, that are disliked by the institutions that fund their campaigns, raise your hands. Those would be the same institutions that want the agency weakened.
No hands? Didn’t think so.
The new agency won’t be toothless if the Senate fails to confirm its director. It can already regulate the way banks deal with consumers, and in the five months since it opened, the bureau has worked to create simplified new information for mortgages, student loans and credit cards so consumers know what they’re signing up for.
But without a director, the bureau can’t regulate financial institutions such as the non-bank mortgage lenders that contributed to the financial crisis, or payday lenders who lure desperate borrowers into exorbitantly priced loans that can trap them forever.
That would be a shame. Lawmakers should be wary of too much regulation, but if they ignore the need for reasonable restrictions they risk letting the nation get burned all over again.
Rural Nevada Democratic Caucus 