Obama makes public push for consumer agency director

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President Obama made a public pitch for the Senate to confirm Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and accused Republicans of wanting to roll back key financial reforms that could protect the country from a future crisis.

‘He would be America’s chief consumer watchdog when it comes to financial products,’ Obama said at a White House news conference Thursday, touting Cordray’s background as former attorney general of Ohio. ‘And Republicans have threatened not to confirm him not because of anything he’s done, but because they want to roll back the whole notion of having a consumer watchdog.’

Obama’s comments came shortly after the Senate Banking Committee voted, 12-10, to approve Cordray’s nomination to be the agency’s first director. But all the Republicans on the committee voted against the nomination as part of a vow by nearly all Senate Republicans to block any nominee to head the agency unless its powers are watered down.

Obama said that threat showed Republicans wanted to go back to the state of regulations before the financial crisis.

‘You’ve got Republican presidential candidates whose main economic policy proposals is we’ll get rid of the financial reforms that are designed to prevent the abuses that got us into this mess in the first place,’ Obama said.

‘That does not make sense to the American people. They are frustrated by it,’ he said, noting the recent protests against big financial institutions on Wall Street and in cities around the country, including in Southern California. ‘And they will continue to be frustrated by it until they get a sense that everybody is playing by the same set of rules and that you’re rewarded for responsibility and doing the right thing, as opposed to gaming the system.’

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-- Jim Puzzanghera