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Op-Ed

Mick Mulvaney Faces Partisan Hit Job

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Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is under attack. The new website ConsumersUnderAttack.org recently surfaced, targeting Mulvaney’s record on financial issues and defending the Obama-era CFPB — Washington’s most unaccountable federal agency.

Who’s behind the “educational resource?” While the website is positioned as an impartial source of information on Mulvaney’s supposed transgressions — such as making minor changes to the CFPB mission statement (the outrage!) — the “Consumers Under Attack” campaign is actually just the Left’s latest advocacy project.

The idea was hatched by a coalition of “progressive” groups, including Allied Progress, Americans for Financial Reform, and the Center for Responsible Lending.

A quick look at the website’s rhetoric confirms the coalition’s bias. On one page, the coalition describes Mulvaney as a “payday industry puppet” and criticizes him for supporting “financial bottom-feeders.” On another, the coalition criticizes his “anti-consumer agenda.”

Sound “educational” to you?

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Allied Progress is headed up by Karl Frisch, a self-described “progressive” and longtime Democrat. According to his bio, he has “worked for a host of Democratic candidates, party committees, and progressive advocacy organizations on the local, state, and national levels.”

Frisch has also “crafted communications strategy for Democratic leaders in Congress and national organizations like Media Matters for America, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.” (Yes, the same Media Matters that routinely targets Fox News advertisers and refers to conservative commentators as “creepy” and “sinister.”)

AFR is hardly less partisan: The group’s executive and steering committees feature a host of union officials, liberal think tank representatives, and even a member of National People’s Action — a socialist group that advocates for universal healthcare and “climate justice.”

NAN is one of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ staunchest supporters, backing his efforts to reverse the “GOP tax scam” and raise taxes on middle-class families.

Do you agree Mulvaney is under attack?

And don’t forget CRL, which is funded by George Soros, the Ford Foundation, and other liberal mega-donors. Can a Soros-funded operation be anything else but a liberal attack dog?

In its criticism of Mulvaney’s tenure, the coalition’s partisan hit job is implying that Richard Cordray’s CFPB did its job with flying colors — a warped assessment of an agency gone rogue. Since its inception, the CFPB has issued more than $5 billion in penalties, punishing a wide variety of employers in the name of “consumer protection.”

And it does so outside of congressional purview. The CFPB receives annual funding as a fixed percentage of the Federal Reserve’s annual budget, keeping Congress — and the American people — out of the appropriations process. Cordray could only be fired by the president and for just cause, a sobering fact given the CFPB’s history of discrimination allegations based on race, age, gender, and sexual orientation.

Cordray’s agency was so out of control that the judiciary branch deemed it “unconstitutional” on multiple occasions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, for example, described the CFPB as “unconstitutionally structured” and a “gross departure from settled historical practice.”

In the words of U.S. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh: The agency’s structure “poses a far greater risk of arbitrary decision making and abuse of power, and a far greater threat to individual liberty, than does a multi-member independent agency.”

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Cordray himself was even threatened with contempt charges by the House Financial Services Committee because of his “failure to honor his legal obligation to produce all records” in response to a committee subpoena.

Ignore the liberal spin. The CFPB — and consumer protection — are in a much better place now under Mick Mulvaney.

Gregory T. Angelo is the president of Log Cabin Republicans, the country’s premier organization representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.

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