President Obama’s Recess Appointment Continues to Roil the GOP

No matter the spin regarding Richard Cordray's Recess Appointment, we should all advocate for smart, better reforms from our elected leaders.

Richard Cordray, former Attorney General of Ohio and newly appointed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Depending on who you ask, President Obama’s appointment of Richard Cordray as the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is either treasonous, brilliant, unconstitutional, bold, arrogant or a much needed breath of fresh air for American consumers.

During what is traditionally a respite from Congressional business, the Senate GOP had been holding “pro-forma” sessions every few days – hitting a gavel in the Senate chamber, then doing jumping jacks or chin ups or ordering pizza – and calling it “official” business so as to block the president from making any recess appointments. Tactics like this are exactly why an overwhelming majority of the American people view Congress as a joke.

Despite these tactics, President Obama announced Cordray as the new head of the Bureau anyway. This immediately prompted calls from Republicans that Cordray’s appointment by circumventing Congress is an extreme and unconstitutional overreach by President Obama. The GOP fails to see the tackiness in their argument (“we’ve been holding bogus sessions, therefore we weren’t technically in recess!”), instead choosing to argue that the president is a dictator who has assaulted the average man’s rights and affronted the Constitution. (Take a look at the Arena - Democrats are beyond pleased while Republicans, except for Scott Brown, are PEEVED).

Amidst all of this, Cordray, the former Ohio Attorney General is making his rounds on the ‘net and in the media to push forth his stated cause – to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans. Following Wednesday’s controversial appointment, he appeared on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to tout his new position in the agency and also posted a YouTube clip on Consumerfinance.gov, the agency’s official website. Check out the clip below:

Let’s cut through the GOP spin regarding the Bureau for a second. Conventional GOP talking points insist that government advocacy for consumers’ best interests amounts to the creation of a big agency that’s going to threaten the livelihood of small businesses and the average man and blah blah. Protecting consumers’ interests is a good thing. Just look to the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, which changed the way average American consumers read their credit card statements:

Until the CARD Act of 2009, the Payment Information box on our credit card statements failed to inform the average user with such detailed information. Photo courtesy of consumerismcommentary.com.

In addition to understanding information more easily as displayed above, the CARD Act also mandated consistent due dates each month. Remember when that Bank of America credit card payment was due on March 3rd, then April 2nd, then May 5th or June 2nd or something? The CARD Act eliminated the silly guessing games we’d play as we raced each month to avoid late fees and increased APR %s. Think of how the average family is better able to plan a monthly budget or save for a vacation as a result.

If the Bureau is able to advocate for and produce small, significant changes like this, then that’s a good thing for the average American. I think it’s important that we remind ourselves of exactly what we want our elected leaders to fight for. Regardless of political ideology, we should continue to advocate for better reforms that make our lives simpler, and frown on political tactics that block our collective progress.