Elon Musk, named by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, tweeted today that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should be eliminated.
In response, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman issued the following statement:
“Elon Musk should do his research (or ask his AI to do it). The CFPB has been a model of government efficiency, returning almost $20 billion to consumers cheated by bank and financial corporation wrongdoing.
“If Musk looks at the facts, he’ll discover: 1) Massive deregulation led to the 2008 financial crisis, which cost American’s trillions, necessitating stronger rules and agencies like the CFPB; and 2) the CFPB was created specifically because none of the overlapping financial regulatory agencies prioritized consumer protection.
“But there’s no reason to think facts or evidence have anything to do with Musk’s views.
“Asking the world’s richest person, with a direct interest in a wide range of business lines, to run a project to review the federal government’s overall operations is absurd and fundamentally corrupt – and this issue highlights exactly why.
“Musk has reportedly obtained money transmitter licenses for X in more than three dozen states and still appears determined to turn X into an “everything app” based around a payment service.
“Such an operation would be subject to regulation by the CFPB – and in fact the CFPB has just finalized a rule to supervise large tech companies offering digital funds transfer and payment wallet apps. This effort comes after CFPB investigations into Big Tech’s role in the banking and financial system and potential adverse impacts on consumers.
“In short, Musk is calling for elimination of the consumer protection regulator over a business line he seems poised to enter.
“If he were just a regular-old rich person, this could perhaps be dismissed as self-interested whining.
“But Musk is not just a regular rich person. Not only is he the richest person in the history of the world, he is joined at the side with the president-elect of the United States – and empowered by the president-elect to make recommendations to slash government agencies and public protections.
“This is systemic corruption at a grand and intolerable scale. It puts the lie to claims that Donald Trump aims to serve the people rather than powerful corporate interests. And it makes a mockery of Musk’s claims to advance efficiency.
“The good news is, the CFPB is too entrenched in law, and too popular, to be eliminated by Musk or Trump.”
