By The Opinion
Nov 27, 2024, 7:42 PM EST
Elon Muskthe president-elect’s cost-cutting czar donald trumpidentified on Wednesday a new enemy of the federal government: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)a relatively new agency created after the Great Recession.
Musk posted “Eliminate CFPB” on his X social media website early Wednesday, referring to the agency with the so-called mission of ensuring “markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent and competitive,” especially targeting financial institutions involved in credit card and payment processing.
Musk called the office an example of “too many duplicate regulatory agencies” in Washington.
The CFPB, created in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis, has a broad mandate to protect Americans from unfair, deceptive or predatory financial practices.
Its current director, Democrat Rohit Chopra, recently issued rules intended to protect people from medical debtmake it easier for them to change banks and limit the charges they must pay for late payments on their credit card bills.
The CFPB has obtained more than $19 billion in consumer aidwhile has penalized large financial institutions and technology companies for allegedly mishandling Americans’ money.
Its oversight has often stoked the ire of the nation’s banks, credit card companies and other large lenders, which have repeatedly sued the bureau on charges of regulatory overreach.
Musk’s opposition to the CFPB is significantbecause he is working alongside technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to establish the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a new entity outside the government that has encouraged Trump to bypass Congress and push the limits of executive power once he is in office.
Trump and congressional Republicans seek limit the power of the CFPB with a unified government as part of a broader regulatory reduction, The Washington Post reported.
Keep reading:
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• Musk and Ramaswamy plan mass layoffs of federal employees and end remote work
• Elon Musk is hiring at X for DOGE, Trump’s new “department”