(TriceEdneyWire.com)—In the dead of night on Oct. 24, Vice President Mike Pence struck a blow against consumers, further empowering the banks and financial institutions that he is beholden to.
He is, no doubt, following the direction of 45, who never met an Obama initiative that he didn’t want to overturn, or an Obama program that he didn’t want to abolish. What happened? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule that would allow individuals to sue banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions.
It gave people the right to sue in class action lawsuits, and effectively overturned the fine print you find in your credit card bill, fine print that says that if you use that particular card, you can’t sue, but instead must submit to mandatory arbitration. Theoretically, arbitration saves court costs, but it also protects those bank and credit card companies that exploit.
Those who opposed the new CPFB rule said that the costs of litigation would impose a burden on financial institutions. What about the burden that is imposed on the people who have been regularly ripped off by some of our nation’s largest financial institutions?
Some background—many Republicans abhor the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the legislation, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) that created it.
They have been jockeying to amend Dodd-Frank to give banks and financial institutions “some relief”, and if they had their way they’d likely eliminate CFPB. The Department of Treasury, which houses the CFPB (though it is an independent agency and is funded by the Federal Reserve Bank), has accused the agency of “regulatory overreach.”
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