Shortly after President Donald Trump’s second term began, Elon Musk proclaimed “RIP CFPB” while trying to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The president and Congress slashed the federal agency’s budget, almost in half, by enacting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. However, Musk’s chainsaw and Congress’s axe can’t cut through political reality: Voters really like the consumer bureau. Voters also back strong regulation of Wall Street, including finance industry newcomers from Big Tech.
These views are not confined to “the libs,” and they are not a flash in the pan. Republican, Democratic, and independent voters alike express overwhelming support for the consumer bureau in a new poll, conducted among likely midterm voters by the bipartisan polling team of Chesapeake Beach Consulting and Lake Research Partners on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending. The bureau’s broad popularity has been consistent over the past decade.
