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More than one Republican senator blocking the nomination of Richard Cordray for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency has claimed that the real problem is not Cordray, a respected former attorney general of Ohio, but the sweeping powers granted to him under the Dodd-Frank law that established the agency. The Republicans want the directorship replaced with a five-person committee and the agency’s budget directly controlled by Congress. In a typical GOP statement, Louisiana senator David Vitter told the Los Angeles Times something had to be done to limit the new agency’s “unbridled, unprecedented authority.” Of course, this is a load of crap: what Vitter and company want is to emasculate the agency at the behest of their high-rolling campaign donors in the financial system.
