In the middle of the night, Vice President and Kochhead Mike Pence voted to rescind a CFPB regulation that protected consumers. In typical Orwellian fashion, he tweeted this just after breaking the tie in the Senate:
Yes, that's Mike Pence "proud" that he cast a vote to lock ordinary people out of the courtroom and force them into arbitration with big banks, a move that neither protects consumers nor community banks.
It does, however, help out the Wells Fargos of the world, right alongside the Equifax shareholders while screwing all of those people who voted for Donald Trump, as Stephanie Ruhle explains.
"Let's say you've got an issue with a big company. Legal action is your main way to fight back against these big companies. But these clauses force you into private arbitration preventing people from pooling their resources into class action lawsuits."
The CFPB studied this phenomenon and opened the door via regulation for consumers to go ahead and file class action lawsuits against banks and other financial institutions which cause consumers to lose money or opportunities or take their homes from them with phony paperwork or drag their feet on mortgage refinancing until interest rates rise. All the things the Bank of Americas and Wells Fargo Banks do routinely, not to mention the investment bankers who caused the Great Recession and should have been sued out of existence if they couldn't be put in jail.
Here's Archie and Gwen's story.
Now Republicans have slammed Archie and Gwen's door to recompense shut, and are "proud" of it. Even worse, they're spinning it as some twisted form of "consumer protection."
You know, when they hold the vote in the middle of the night and and waltz in to cast it wearing tuxedos (see Tom Cotton in the video above), you know it's not something to protect people. It's all about the bankers.
Again.
Update:
The American Association for Justice put this statement out, which sums everything up:
“Tonight was a bad night for the Constitution and for the American consumer. The Senators who voted to overturn the CFPB rule on forced arbitration decided to protect big banks and corporations like Wells Fargo and Equifax that prey on their customers to increase their profits. Without the CFPB rule, consumers can be forced into a rigged system where they have no recourse. It’s a disgrace.
“The fight to protect the rights of consumers doesn’t end here. Too many military families have been targeted by scams, too many seniors have been taken advantage of, and too many harassed workers have been silenced in the workplace. Congress should be doing everything in its power to protect these people, instead of the big banks and corporations that continue to rip off their customers knowing that they can’t be held accountable in court.”
