A Fighting Chance

“mouthful of mush that doesn’t get the job done”: Shahien Nasiripour, “Fight for the CFPA Is ‘a Dispute Between Families and Banks,’ Says Elizabeth Warren,” Huffington Post, March 3, 2010.

not the big banks, pick up the tab: During negotiations between the House and Senate, the Congressional Budget Office came out with a report showing that the reform bill would cost $19 billion over time. (This estimate was for the cost of stepped-up bank regulation and did not include the cost of running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was separately funded as part of the Federal Reserve System, which is not taxpayer funded.) The financial reform bill that first passed the Senate ensured that the new costs of regulation would fall on the hedge funds and other large financial institutions that would pay a fee to fund the work. George Zornick, “Scott Brown’s Hypocrisy on Wall Street Reform,” The Nation, October 11, 2012. But in the final weeks of June, long after the funding provision had been agreed on by lawmakers and the Dodd-Frank bill was moving toward passage, Scott Brown demanded that the tax be eliminated. Donovan Slack, “Donations Poured In as Brown’s Role Grew,” Boston Globe, December 12, 2010. Instead of charging the biggest hedge funds and banks for the cost of the regulation, the vast majority of the funds would come from unused TARP funds, which were due to go back to the taxpayers. Daniel Indiviglio, “Financial Regulation Bill Passes Through Conference … Again,” The Atlantic, June 29, 2010. As Barney Frank and many others put it, Brown moved “twenty billion dollars off the backs of the banks and onto the taxpayers.” Zornick, “Scott Brown’s Hypocrisy on Wall Street Reform”; see also Max Fisher, “$19 Billion Bank Fee Nixed: Will It Save Financial Reform?,” The Wire, June 30, 2010.

5 | An Agency for the People

asking him to pick me: The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), under the leadership of Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, organized a petition with the headline “Let Elizabeth Warren Police Wall Street” in 2010. At least thirteen senators signed on to the petition, and as of August 6, 2010, the petition had collected more than two hundred thousand signatures. Stephanie London, “Al Franken Leads Campaign to Whip Support for Elizabeth Warren,” CBS News, August 6, 2010.

because the banks would oppose me: “Elizabeth Warren,” editorial, New York Times, July 24, 2010. The editorial characterized the banks’ objection to my appointment: “The banks don’t oppose Ms. Warren because she doesn’t get it. They oppose her because she does.”

“she’s what we need, yo”: Los Angeles comedian Ryan Anthony Lumas was an employee at Best Buy when he wrote and performed in a Western-style rap video urging the president to appoint me to head up the new consumer agency. The video was sponsored by the Main Street Brigade, a group supported by Hans Zimmer and Bonnie Abaunza that was dedicated to fighting for American families and consumer protection reforms in Washington. In the video, Lumas raps about how the country has a strong consumer advocate and “sheriff of Wall Street” in Elizabeth Warren. Video available at: http://mainstreetbrigade.org. See also Joe Nocera, “Consumers Clamoring for a Leader,” New York Times, August 20, 2010.

“This is a power grab”: See Ronald D. Orol and Greg Robb, “Warren Seen Gaining Key Consumer Protection Post,” Market Watch, July 28, 2010.

and that I would be hard to confirm: Senator Dodd said in an interview with the Courant: “It isn’t just a question of being a consumer advocate. I want to see that she can manage something, too.” Kenneth R. Gosselin, “Dodd: Is Warren ‘Confirmable?,’” Courant, August 17, 2010. See also Shahien Nasiripour, “Chris Dodd, Top Democrat, Fights Against Elizabeth Warren,” Huffington Post, August 12, 2010.