Clip File: the next Big Fight in Congress will be over the proposed creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency

"...The House Financial Services Committee hopes to approve the CFPA the week after next. On Wednesday, the committee held a hearing to discuss Chairman Barney Frank's draft proposal. The best case for a CFPA was made by those offering their reasons for opposing it.

"Those arguments ranged from the bizarre: 'If [this] had been in effect a number of years ago we probably wouldn't have ATM machines, frequent flyer miles, and the list goes on,' said Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling. Ranking Member Spencer Bachus of Alabama claimed that the CFPA would lead to 'less consumer protection.'

"To the inane: 'Could you clarify to me the extent of [SEIU's] financial and programmatic ties to ACORN?' Congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina demanded of witness Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union. David John, senior research fellow, at the Heritage Foundation, said, 'When you establish a new agency of this type... you're going to find yourself with people who are supposedly regulating but in reality they're far more concerned about finding things like where their desk is, and who their new reporting relationship is, etc., etc.'" -- Do They Take Us for Schmucks? by Greg Kaufmann (The Nation 2009-10-02