Winning Progressive

President Obama started 2012 off well yesterday when he made a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). And, despite ridiculous Republican threats to challenge the appointment, Mr. Cordray has immediately gotten to work.  Today, the CFPB announced the launch of its non-bank supervision program, through which it will carefully scrutinize the actions of mortgage companies, payday lenders, and private education lenders to ensure that they are complying with consumer protection laws.  A second phase of the non-bank supervision program is in the works, and will cover debt collectors, auto financing, consumer reporting, and money services businesses.  And Mr. Cordray has vowed not to let Republican squawking slow him down, and has outlined steps the CFPB is taking to crack down on illegal financial activity.

The CFPB and the appointment of Richard Cordray is a real progressive victory delivered by the Obama Administration.  Created by one of the core provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that the Democratic Congress passed in 2010, the CFPB is providing the American people with a long-needed federal regulatory watchdog over some of the sleaziest business sectors, including payday lenders, credit card companies, credit counseling entities, and subprime mortgage lenders.  For far too long, vast portions of the American middle class are being squeezed by unfettered financial service companies that have used all sorts of unscrupulous tactics to maximize profits.   The CFPB is charged with changing this dynamic by enforcing a wide array of consumer protections, including the credit card industry reforms signed by President Obama, and consolidating enforcement of consumer protections that are currently handled by seven different agencies.  The CFPB’s goal is to make the pricing and risks of financial products offered by these entities much clearer and fairer to the American public so that payday lenders, etc. are no longer able to prey on the most financially vulnerable among us.

And Mr. Cordray is a great choice for leading the CFPB, as he has a proven track record of fighting for working families.  For example, in his time as Ohio Attorney General, Cordray was at the forefront of efforts to hold Wall Street accountable for the economic debacle that they created. Faced with widespread foreclosures, declines in pensions, and increases in unemployment due to the casino-like atmosphere that overtook Wall Street, Cordray sought to recover funds from the Wall Street banksters whose fraudulent practices created those problems. And Cordray was successful, as the New York Times explains:

Mr. Cordray in two years in office has demonstrated a willingness to sue early and often, filing lawsuits against global financial houses, rating agencies, subprime lenders and foreclosure scammers. He has wrested about $2 billion so far, a string of gilded pelts: a $475 million Merrill Lynch settlement, $400 million from Marsh & McLennan and $725 million from the American International Group.
. . . .
His office has returned money to investors, pension funds, schools and cities. And he has directed millions to agencies fighting foreclosure.

Yesterday, President Obama and Mr. Cordray met with one of the families in Ohio that were helped by Cordray’s work – William and Enida Eason. As President Obama explained at his speech yesterday announcing Mr. Cordray’s appointment:

If you’re a senior, Richard is going to help make sure you don’t lose your home or your retirement because somebody saw you as an easier target.  And that’s what happened to the Easons.  Endia, who I think is here — Ms. Eason, are you here?  You’re somewhere here.  There’s — Ms. Eason is down there.  Ninety-one years old.   And as I mentioned, Ms. Eason’s husband, William, is a former Marine — also a former boxer.  So don’t mess with him.

And I just want to repeat, 10 years ago they were approached by a broker who offered them a loan to make needed repairs on their home; made everything sound easy.  The Easons agreed.  Broker ended up disappearing.  They get left with $80,000 in debt, almost lose their home.  They didn’t lose it because of the intervention of some terrific non-for-profits that Richard, when he was treasurer here in Ohio, helped to support.

Now, the Easons are good people.  They’re what America is all about.  They worked hard.  They served their country.  They saved their money.  They didn’t live high on the hog.  It’s a modest house.  They earned the right to retire with dignity and with respect, and they shouldn’t have to worry about being tricked by somebody who’s out to make a quick buck.  And they need somebody who is going to stand up for them, and millions of Americans need somebody who is going to look out for their interests.  And that person is Richard Cordray.

The recess appointment of Mr. Cordray was also encouraging for progressives because it is a great example of President Obama taking the fight to the GOP.  For the past year and a half, the GOP has managed to prevent the CFPB from doing its job by filibustering Obama’s nominees (first Elizabeth Warren and then Richard Cordray).  Yesterday’s recess appointment makes clear that enough is enough, and taunts the GOP to choose a high profile battle over recess appointments over an agency that has strong public support and on an issue of economic justice that the GOP is plainly on the wrong side of.  And, by waiting to make the appointment until yesterday, when the second session of the 112th Congress officially began, President Obama ensured that Cordray’s appointment would last until the end of 2013, rather than until the end of this year.

Finally, some progressives were disappointed last summer when President Obama decided to withdraw his nomination of Elizabeth Warren for the CFPB director post and to instead nominate Mr. Cordray.  But, as we noted at the time, this decision has given us progressives a two-fer – a great director of the CFPB and a great Senate candidate in Massachusetts to replace Republican Scott Brown.

We progressives should help support these great developments by:

- writing a letter to your local newspaper editor explaining why you support the CFPB and Mr. Cordray

- contacting your Senators and the White House in support of Mr. Cordray’s appointment

- supporting Ms. Warren’s Senate campaign, so that the CFPB and consumers will have a strong voice in the Senate starting in 2013.

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We’re starting a new occasional feature at Winning Progressive called “Quick Hits,” in which we briefly flag some important progressive stories from the past few days.  Feel free to e-mail us if you have any suggestions for future editions of Quick Hits. 

Recall Scott Walker – progressives in Wisconsin have officially begun the effort to recall GOP Gov. Scott Walker and stop his anti-worker conservative agenda.  At least 540,208 signatures must be collected over the next 59 days, and then a recall election will be held six weeks after that.  Visit the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s Recall Headquarters, where:

You can sign up to volunteer your time, make a donation and attend recall events in your area. You can also download petitions to circulate amongst your friends, family and neighbors here.

President Obama Calls Waterboarding What It Is – Torture – After a recent GOP Presidential debate in which a number of candidates supported resuming waterboarding, President Obama forcefully rejected the practice, explaining:

“They’re wrong. Waterboarding is torture,” Obama said. “Anybody who has actually read about and understands the practice of waterboarding would say that that is torture. And that’s not something we do — period.”

Contact the White House - 202-456-1111 – to thank our President for standing up for basic human decency.

Health Care Reform Goes to the Supreme Court – The Supreme Court has announced that it is going to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of President Obama’s historic health care reform legislation.  As we explained recently, two conservative appellate court judges have upheld the constitutionality of the legislation’s “shared responsibility” provision, which bodes well for Justice Kennedy or some other conservative joining with the moderates and liberals on the Court to uphold the law.  Oral argument is expected in March 2012, with a decision likely to be issued in June or July 2012.

Elizabeth Warren’s First Campaign Ad – Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (MA) is working to define herself and her campaign by launching her first television commercial.  The commercial discusses Warren’s working class background, and explains how she is fighting to provide a level playing field for all Massachusettians.   Watch the commercial below and if you like it visit Ms. Warren’s campaign website to learn more about how you can support her campaign:

Over at the New York Times, Joe Nocera recently had a column entitled “We Can All Become Job Creators” in which he praised Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for two recent proposals regarding jobs and politics:

When last we left the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, in mid-August, he had written a widely publicized e-mail lamenting the poisonous state of our nation’s politics. That led him to his first big idea: a call for a boycott of political contributions until Democrats and Republicans began to act in a nonpartisan way for the good of the country.

The idea had undeniable appeal. But it was also — let’s face it — pretty quixotic, fun to dream about but impossible to turn into reality.

Here we are two months later, and Schultz is back with Big Idea No. 2. It is every bit as idealistic as his first big idea, but far more practical. Starbucks is going to create a mechanism that will allow us citizens to do what the government and the banks won’t: lend money to small businesses. This mechanism is scheduled to be rolled out on Nov. 1. This time, Schultz is not tilting at windmills.

. . . .

Here’s the idea they came up with: Americans themselves would start lending to small businesses, with Starbucks serving as the middleman. Starbucks would find financial institutions willing to loan to small businesses. Starbucks customers would be able to donate money to the effort when they bought their coffee. Those who gave $5 or more would get a red-white-and-blue wristband, which Schultz labeled “Indivisible.” “We are hoping it will bring back pride in the American dream,” he says. The tag line will read: “Americans Helping Americans.”

While I appreciate Mr. Schultz’s efforts to think big, his two proposals are both highly misguided efforts that ignore political realities by working from a flawed pox on both houses approach.  The proposal to withhold campaign contributions represents little more than unilateral disarmament, as we can guarantee you that the Koch Brothers and other conservative sugar daddies are not going to stop bankrolling the GOP.  All having public spirited people stop donating to political candidates will do is to reduce the chance that candidates who present the best chance of us making progress in reforming the political system have at getting elected.

And the proposal to have average Americans giving money to Starbucks (and, presumably, buying a $4 caramel macchiato at the same time!) so that Starbucks can then give it to an organization that will hand out small business loans is flawed in a number of respects.  First, it is a highly inefficient approach.  Second, it amounts to little more than a drop in the bucket in comparison to the level of small business loans and other investments needed to getting our economy moving again.  According to Mr. Nocera’s column, 10 million Starbucks customers would need to give $5 each in order to leverage $350 million in small business loans.

Perhaps most problematic, however, is that Mr. Schultz’s proposal  encourages the view that we cannot or should not look to government to get our economy moving.   For example, Mr. Nocera refers to the government as a “nonfactor,” saying:

Should the government finance a sustained infrastructure program to create jobs? Of course. Should it give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed? Yes again. But with an election coming up, nothing of the sort is likely.

. . .

With the government and banks unwilling or unable, it’s time we took matters into our own hands. At this point, who else can we count on?

But this assumption that the government is a “nonfactor” that cannot or will not help the economy ignores the reality that one party – the Democrats – supports infrastructure investment, small business loans, payroll tax breaks, unemployment compensation extensions, and other steps that would stimulate our economy and reduce unemployment. The other party – the Republicans – are filibustering such proposals (even ones they once supported) and have failed to offer any credible jobs plan of their own. And the reason the GOP is doing this is that their number one goal is to try to ensure the defeat of President Obama in 2012. In other words, it is not that our political system refuses to take action on the economy.  It is that one portion of that political system – the GOP – is engaged in a cynical obstructionist ploy that puts their ideological and political goals ahead of the well-being of the American people.

In the face of this clear distinction between the two parties, we need everyone who is concerned about the economy to focus on getting the proposals in the American Jobs Act passed, President Obama re-elected, and Elizabeth Warren and other progressive Democrats elected in the Senate and House. Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz’s proposals do nothing of the sort and treats the political system as a “nonfactor,” thereby ceding the political forum to the conservatives who are doing so much to hold our economy down.

Yes, serious reform is needed and the Democrats are far from perfect.  But step one in getting the policies and reforms that are needed is to vote out the opponents of reform – the GOP – and to get folks who we at least have a chance of pushing to give us real reform – the Dems – back in, not pretending like the political system is a “non-factor.”

For this weekend’s reading list we have an excerpt from a new book on the New Deal, a profile of Elizabeth Warren, a debunking of conservative economic myths, the benefits of collective bargaining, how government subsidies still favor dirty energy sources, and an assessment of the Obama Administration’s handling of the Bush Recession.

If you have any feedback on these articles, or would like to recommend an article for next weekend’s reading list, please let us know at Winning Progressive’s Facebook page

What the New Deal Accomplished – an excerpt from Michael Hiltzik’s new book The New Deal: A Modern History about what the New Deal accomplished and what it continues to mean for us today

The Woman Who Knew Too Much - An interesting profile of U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, her fight for the middle class and financial fairness, and the American financial oligarchy that is lined up against her

Rich People Create Jobs! - a debunking of six conservative myths that are holding our economy back

Benefits of Bargaining – a report on how collective bargaining by public employees benefits local communities in Ohio

The Myth of the Free Market - a report on how the coal, oil, and other fossil fuel industries receive far more in federal taxpayer subsidies than do clean energy projects

Could This Time Have Been Different? – A detailing by Ezra Klein of the successes and shortcomings of President Obama’s responses to the economic crisis that he inherited

Over the past couple of weeks, the Occupy Wall Street movement has gone from a relatively small group of protesters in Lower Manhattan who were ignored by the media to a rapidly growing movement throughout the country that the media has little choice but to cover.  The key moving forward will be to make sure this movement is sustained and continues to grow over the long haul, and to figure out how to translate the energy being created into an impetus for real policy change in America.  For an in-depth discussion of the strategies for achieving these goals, we highly recommend this essay from Rich Yeselson at Change to Win.  For a more direct action focus, Winning Progressive provides the following three recommendations:

1. Get Involved

We urge all of our readers to get involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement.   Winning Progressive has to admit that we were initially skeptical about Occupy Wall Street, but as John Cole over at Balloon Juice recently said, we were wrong:

This may still fizzle out without any real change, but right now, it seems to be building, and the reason it is is because a small group of people went out there and publicly voiced their displeasure with the shit I’ve been sitting on my fat ass writing dyspeptic posts about for the last year, but not really doing a god damned thing to enact change. Yeah, it was some jackasses with a drum circle, and no, they didn’t have a point by point plan or coherent media strategy like some anal retentive douchebags like me were demanding. But they went out there and did something, and it seems to be working. Let’s hope it keeps growing.

Here’s three ways to help keep the movement growing:

* Find an Occupy Wall Street solidarity event to attend in your city

* Donate money or food delivery to support the protesters

* Post your story and/or share other people’s stories at the We Are the 99 Percent tumblr site

2. Establish Some Focused Goals

The Occupy Wall Street movement is motivated by the critical rallying cry of having our political and financial systems focus on the well-being of the 99% of us, rather than only on the wealthiest 1%.  But in order for the protests to achieve societal change, we need to identify specific goals by which to measure progress.  Winning Progressive recommends three such policy goals that are directly related to the underlying effort to reorient our system to the needs of the 99%:

* Addressing the home foreclosure crisis through cramdown legislation

* Job creation through economic stimulus, including passing the American Jobs Act and establishing a WPA-style jobs program

* Getting money out of politics by amending the Constitution to reverse the Citizens United decision and supporting Clean Election Laws

3. Get Involved Politically

The Occupy Wall Street movement is motivated by a deep and well-deserved anger at our current political system.  But it is critical that we channel that anger towards changing the system, not just rejecting it.  The tea partiers have realized this and have successfully channeled their views (with the help of billionaires and a compliant media) into establishing real political strength in Washington and state governments by moving the GOP to the right.  In order for us to ensure that the Occupy Wall Street movement leads to progressive social change, we need to work to channel the passion and engagement into changing our political system by:

* Making sure that you and everyone else at each Occupy Wall Street gathering is registered to vote

* Contacting your federal and state elected officials to demand action on stopping home foreclosures, creating jobs, and getting money out of politics

* Volunteering for progressive candidates in primary elections – a key way conservatives have moved the GOP to the right is by using primary elections to support the more conservative candidates.  We need to do the same for the progressive side.  So, find a good progressive candidate in your area to support.  Three candidates that we recommend are Elizabeth Warren for US Senate in Massachusetts, Mazie Hirono for US Senate in Hawaii, and Ilya Sheyman for Congress in Illinois’ 10th District.

Occupy Wall Street has put the critical issue of benefiting society as a whole, rather than just the wealthiest 1%, onto the agenda.  Now it is up to us to get involved in order to keep it there and make sure that we achieve real social change.   Let’s get this done!

We here at Winning Progressive were very excited yesterday to hear that Elizabeth Warren had announced her candidacy to be the next US Senator from Massachusetts.  Ms. Warren has long fought for working people and the types of financial and bankruptcy law reforms that can help save America’s middle class.  As Ms. Warren has argued for years, vast portions of the American middle class are being squeezed by unfettered financial service companies focused that have used all sorts of unscrupulous tactics to maximize profits.  Her work to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is charged with cracking down on unscrupulous financial services companies by enforcing a wide array of consumer protections, is critical to taking on that middle class squeeze.

We fully expect Ms. Warren to bring this same eagerness to fight for the middle class to the U.S. Senate when she unseats GOP Senator Scott Brown who slipped into office during a low-turnout special election.  And Ms. Warren’s campaign announcement video, which is pasted below, shows that she will live up to those expectations.   Please watch the announcement video, and then help make sure that Elizabeth Warren is the next US Senator from Massachusetts by:

* sharing this post and the announcement video with your family, friends, and colleagues

* Signing up and/or donating at the campaign website

* Following the campaign on Facebook and Twitter

* If you live in Massachusetts, writing a letter to your local newspaper editor in support of Ms. Warren’s candidacy