Outgoing Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) warned Tuesday that an interim appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "jeopardizes the existence" of the nascent agency.There's so much opposition to Elizabeth Warren that the only person constantly voicing it from either party is... Chris Dodd. Why Dodd is doing this isn't entirely clear, but considering his past it's probably 60% him being owned by the banking industry, and 40% that he's a self absorbed asshole.
The White House is considering naming Warren interim head, as the law establishing the CFPB allows, in order to get her into place immediately and head off a Senate filibuster of her nomination. Once she's in place, Obama could nominate her for the permanent position.
"I'm not enthusiastic about that and I think it'll be met with a lot of opposition," Dodd told reporters after coming off the Senate floor.
Dodd said that an interim appointment would deprive the director of the legitimacy that comes with Senate confirmation. He added that such an appointment could create a backlash that would lead Congress to defund the bureau.That's even more awesome, in addition to simply opposing her, he's detailing attack plans that the GOP could "hypothetically" use against the agency if she was nominated.
"This is a big job, an important job, and it needs to be -- you've got to build the support for that institutionally or the next Congress - and none of us know what the outcome's going to be politically -- you could gut this before it even gets off the ground. If you don't have someone running it early on, it jeopardizes the existence of the consumer protection bureau," he said. Asked how Congress would gut it, he said: "Money. Take away the money. That's how you always do it."
The CFPB, however, is designed to get its funding stream from the Federal Reserve, not Congress. During the Wall Street reform debate, Dodd argued that funding from the Fed would protect the CFPB from Congressional efforts to defund it. On Tuesday, however, Dodd said that the funding stream could be altered and then killed. "They can change the funding source and kill it," said Dodd. "That can change with an amendment."
Dodd's douchery aside, the real story here is why the fuck the White House hasn't nominated her yet. She's clearly the most qualified, she's extremely popular and oh yeah... she helped FUCKING DESIGN THE AGENCY SHE WOULD LEAD.
Clearly Giethner's coziness with the banks is a major source of the uneasiness, but there's seriously no excuse that this point. The longer this drags on the longer it will take to get this agency off the ground, which would hurt the chances that this becomes a sound institution that serves us for decades to come.
Daring the GOP to fight against Elizabeth Warren would be like the TKO of Boehner over the bush tax cuts times 10. The Republicans don't want any of this fight, especially not before the election. Get here in there today, so she can finish the work she's started.
"nah thats cool, wouldn't be bipartisan enough of me..."
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