Archive for Richard Cordray

“He will win a second term. The angrier they get, the better this president looks in his defense of the middle class.”

Today’s L.A. Times letters to the editor, because our voices matter:

Rattled by recess appointments

Re “With Senate idle, Obama goes to work,” Jan. 5

So congressional Republicans are furious at what House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) called President Obama‘s “extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab.”

Excuse me? George W. Bush made 171 such “unprecedented” recess appointments, including that of John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N.

How long will the GOP get away with such duplicity? It’s high time Obama and others in Washington call their bluff.

Liz White
Los Angeles

***

The Republicans’ outrage at Obama’s appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau tells me one thing: He will win a second term. The angrier they get, the better this president looks in his defense of the middle class.

Does this mean he finally gets it?

Dennis Grossman
Woodland Hills

White House leaves door open to more recess appointments

This also leaves the door open to more good news posts like this one. Via Roll Call:

After showing last week that President Barack Obama is not afraid to defy GOP filibusters of his nominees, the White House is leaving the door open to more recess appointments — some of which could continue to help him showcase his campaign theme that he is the remedy to Capitol Hill’s gridlock.

When President Obama used his presidential powers to finally make Richard Cordray the official head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and then to appoint three National Labor Relations Board members, many of us stood up and cheered. All that GOP obstruction, all the blocks, all the filibusters finally drove him to act on his own, which was exactly what was necessary in order to overcome the spiteful, destructive Republican brick walls.

Obama could still choose to tap a number of stalled nominees in his effort to position himself as the champion of the middle class and consumers — the same theme struck in last week’s appointments.

As Roll Call reports, there are still– count ‘em– 181 nominations pending in the Senate, and many of those have been for at least six months.

Other recess appointment possibilities could help win favor with another important constituency — Hispanic voters. Those include Adam Namm to be ambassador to Ecuador and Roberta Jacobson to be assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. Senate Republicans filibustered the nomination of Mari Carmen Aponte to be ambassador to El Salvador last month. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is holding up Namm’s and Jacobson’s appointments.

And don’t get me started on judicial nominees.

VIDEO: President Obama Speaks at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

This never aired yesterday… apparently the pool feed failed, so here you go:

President Obama discusses the importance of protecting American consumers by making sure that banks, mortgage companies, loan providers, and other financial services providers play by the rules.

Video- The Daily Show: Commission- Impossible

VIDEO: Pres. Obama in Cleveland, Ohio on Richard Cordray, GOP obstruction

President Obama on his appointment Of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, on the usual GOP obstruction of anything he supports, and more.

Via the wonderful @ReasonVsFear.

President Obama to use recess appointment to install consumer agency chief

Enough with Republican obstructionists, already. Thank you, Pres O. Via email alert:

President Obama will appoint former Ohio Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray today to be the first director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, making a controversial decision to install him while the Senate is in recess to avoid intense Republican opposition, a move likely to be challenged in court.

More soon at http://www.latimes.com/.

Added, via email (Here’s the Richard Cordray link)

 

Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts
 

Laffy,

This is an important day.  Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gets its first director — and its full powers.  President Obama gave Richard Cordray a recess appointment that Republicans cannot block.

Please join me and tell Richard Cordray we’re with him all the way: Click here to sign my online card now and deliver a strong message of support to an important advocate! 

For months, determined as ever to protect Wall Street and the big banks instead of you, Republicans stymied the consumer agency from doing its job. Republicans demanded changes that would weaken the agency and its ability to protect you, and they filibustered the nomination of Richard Cordray as its director.

The big banks were winning once again until today — when President Obama gave Cordray a recess appointment!

This is a big deal for middle class families in Massachusetts and across our nation.

For more than a year, we’ve seen and heard reports exposing how some of America’s largest financial institutions broke the law. Maybe that’s why Wall Street continues to set new spending records hiring lobbyists to shift attention away from their wrongdoings.

As a result, those who broke our economic system haven’t been subject to full scrutiny.  But with Richard Cordray in place at the CFPB, we can start moving toward real accountability over the big banks.

Please join me in celebrating the end of the Republican roadblock preventing the consumer agency from moving forward — and tell Richard Cordray we stand with him in this important fight for middle-class families.

The public is paying attention to this fight — including thousands who signed our petition urging that Rich get this position. 

We’ve worked hard together to get this far.  We should celebrate — and keep right on working.  Let’s show there’s real momentum behind Cordray’s leadership.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth Signature

Elizabeth Warren

President Obama Won’t Make Recess Appointments Today

So you know how many of us were hoping that the president might appoint Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during that teeny tiny moments-long window of time today between the first and second session of the 112th Congress?

Yeah, well, consider those hopes dashed. I’m sure the president has his reasons for declining to take advantage of the opportunity, and hopefully, he’ll explain in short order.

Via Roll Call:

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that Obama would not be making any recess appointments today and declined further comment.

Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McTurtleConnell and his trusty band of obstructionists made it one of their destructive little goals to block Cordray “until a new law is passed reforming the CFPB to dilute its power.”

And as John Dean tweeted, “THE TEA PARTY’s GAME ADMITTED: We’ve been employing a hostage strategy.” Here’s the link.

These people admittedly do not care about Americans, they care about themselves. If only more voters were aware of that.