Senate Republicans Thursday blocked President Obama’s second choice to lead a newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prompting Obama to step up accusations that the GOP is obstructing a broader Democratic agenda aimed at helping and protecting the middle class.
Obama took to the podium in the White House briefing room shortly after the Senate fell seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. Every Republican except Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts voted to block the appointment of Cordray, who now runs the consumer agency’s enforcement division.
Obama chided the GOP for resisting Cordray’s appointment and for opposing plans by the Democrats to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. He accused Republican leaders of “wanting to dicker, wanting to see what can they extract from us in order to get this done.”
“My response to them,” Obama said, “is just do the right thing. Focus on the American people, focus on the economy right now.”
Obama told reporters he would not rule out using his constitutional powers to make a recess appointment, effectively naming Cordray to the post temporarily once Congress adjourns for its holiday recess.
The vote against Cordray was the latest setback for Obama, who has been trying to fill the consumer-protection job for months. He tapped Cordray after Republicans vowed to block his first pick, Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who is now challenging Brown for his Senate seat.
“This makes absolutely no sense,” Obama said after the Senate’s 53-45 vote. “Consumers across the country understand part of the reason we got into this financial mess that we did was that regulators were not doing their jobs. There were folks who were making a lot of money taking advantage of individual consumers.”
The consumer protection board was created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform measure signed into law last year.
Republicans have vowed to block any effort to appoint a director for the watchdog agency because they fear that person would have unchecked powers to devise potentially unfair penalties and restrictions on banks.
“We’re not going to let the president put another un-elected czar in place, unaccountable to the American people. And frankly, his refusal to work with us on this only deepens our concerns,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said before the vote. “The CFPB requires reforms before any nominee can be confirmed. It’s time the president takes these concerns seriously.”
Republicans have been struggling to defend their resistance to a string of bills Democrats have labeled as pro-middle class.
In the coming days, the two parties are expected to battle over the extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits. Democrats want to pay for the twin extensions with a tax on those earning more than $1 million. Republicans prefer to finance the extensions by freezing the pay of federal workers and by banning the wealthy from collecting food stamps and other entitlement benefits.
