Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) wants to wipe out the cops.
If it were up to her, Capito would get rid of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the top cop on Wall Street.
Capito told Credit Union Times this week that if it were up to her, she would “dismantle? the agency.
But even that would be too obvious for her big bank masters, so instead Capito has put forth legislation that would significantly curtail the powers of the new police agency — an agency that is not scheduled to begin its operations until July 21.
Capito’s primary financial backers during her Congressional career have been the PACs and executives at Citigroup.
And while she wraps herself around the flag of small community bankers, Capito is working for the big banks.
Have no doubt.
Adam Levitin, a Professor of Law at Georgetown University, testified last week before the House Committee on Financial Services — Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit — which Capito chairs.
Capito and her Big Bank colleagues have put forth legislation on behalf of the big banks that would — as Levitin put it — “strangle the new agency in its crib.”
“The bills being considered at this hearing would appear to be legislative tweaks to the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Levitin told the subcommittee on April 6. “But let us not mistake what this hearing is really about. The issue presented by this hearing is whether Congress cares more about increasing the profits of banks or protecting the financial security of American families.”
“Which is more important? Banks or families? That is the question.”
“The new CFPB has not yet had a chance to get up and running, yet already we’re seeing attempts to strangle the new agency in its crib.”
“If you want to understand what this hearing is about, look at who is here at this witness table. There are three bankers and me.”
“At the previous — on the previous panel, there were three bankers and Mr. Shelton from the NAACP.”
“Ask yourself — who here likes the CFPB and who does not? The banks are opposed to the CFPB and want to see it hobbled if not eliminated.”
“But it is families, Main Street and the real economy who like to see CFPB and want someone looking out for them, making sure that banks don’t run wild like they did in the run up to the financial crisis, because the other banks regulators, the prudential regulators failed us.”
“And we were stuck with the bill.”
“Again, does the subcommittee care more about the interest of banks or about American families?”
Capito said she was “shocked” to hear Levitin say that “the choices here are between banks and families.”
Shocked.
Shocked.
But Capito cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
The families in Capito’s Congressional district have caught onto her game.
She’s fronting for Citigroup — her number one donor.
And working to wipe out the cops who would protect the families in her district.
Members of families from throughout Capito’s district will be meeting on April 20, 2011 at the Earth Dog Cafe in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
An ad announcing the meeting will appear in this week’s Morgan Messenger.
RUSSELL MOKHIBER edits Morgan County USA.