What goes around, comes around

Many were outraged by the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011.  I wrote about it at the time, as did many others.  It was Big Brother writ large, bypassing constitutional limitations and congressional oversight.  Sure enough, it became a means to funnel large sums to left-wing, progressive causes with no way to monitor or control the flow.

However, by appointing (not without opposition) a new director for the CFPB, President Trump has stripped away its veil of self-created secrecy, and the light is beginning to dawn.  Schadenfreude was the order of the day on Capitol Hill yesterday.  Hot Air reports:

When Mick Mulvaney served in the House, he tried to warn colleagues that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was too independent of Congress. Now that he’s running the CFPB, Mulvaney wants to demonstrate just how correct he was. For the second straight day, the acting director has told a congressional panel that he can just sit in front of them all day and ignore their questions, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

. . .

Mulvaney delivered the same message to the House yesterday. In testimony before the Financial Services committee, Mulvaney pointed out that the enabling statute for the CFPB only required him to show up when asked. Otherwise, he could just as well twiddle his thumbs or answer e-mails rather than answering any questions from Congress.

. . .

This attempt to force Congress to reckon with its own bad ideas didn’t just start yesterday. Mulvaney threw the first punch last week in correspondence with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who helped create the agency — and its independence from Congress ... Mulvaney flat-out refused to answer Warren’s written questions.

There's more at the link.

Mr. Mulvaney is, of course, cooperating with both House and Senate committees.  He merely made the point that by setting up the CFPB to be independent of congressional oversight, Senator Warren and the Obama administration were now "hoist with their own petard" - to the Senator's obvious anger and discomfort.  I'm sure Mr. Mulvaney enjoyed the exchange!

I thoroughly enjoyed Ace of Spades' take on the proceedings.

Best part: Elizabeth Warren demands answers, and Mulvaney tells her to **** off -- he invites her to experience some of the same frustration he felt when trying to get answers from a rogue agency entirely insulated from oversight by the people's representatives.

Flashback: Because the CFPB skims money from the companies it bullies, it is largely self-funding in the same way an armed street gang is self-funding. Yet they usually demand the government pour even additional taxpayer monies into this shakedown operation anyway.

When Mick Mulvaney had to request budgetary money, he asked for zero. Not for a zero percent increase. He asked for zero dollars, period. He literally zeroed out his own agency's budget.

Don't worry -- they'll keep collecting the vig from the people they shake down.

But at least they won't get any taxpayer money.

I'm not a gay, but looking at Mick Mulvaney's Bad Boy motorcycle-leather appeal, I have to say: I get it, Gay Dudes. I get it.

Again, more at the link.

Seriously, it's high time the CFPB was reformed, and brought under the same congressional oversight as all other executive branch departments and bureaus (something Mr. Mulvaney requested last week).  For that matter, I fail to see any compelling reason at all for its existence.  If President Trump can find a way to abolish it, I (and, doubtless, Mr. Mulvaney) will shed no tears at all.

Peter