We've said this over and over again... Congress sweats the small stuff too much, and that all they concern themselves with is what is on today's docket. To us, if they paid more attention to the larger issues, and settled on the lesser issues, DC would be a more harmonious and positive place. What do we mean? Well, things happen today that, like Doc Brown would explain in 'Back to the Future', create an alternate reality for everyone. In short, denying something today gives people other options that, in the end, hurt you more than if you would have given them the first gig...
Need an example? We have a great one that is playing out as we speak... So, have you figured out who the lady in the picture is yet? For those of you who answered Elizabeth Warren, congrats! For you of you who drew a blank, there is a good chance you'll hear about her in November. Warren is a professor at Harvard University. She is a well-respected consumer finance expert who we first saw on a documentary film about the credit card scams that were rampant in the mid and late 2000's. Anyone who saw what was going on back then can't say that $39 charges for being a day late was fair...
Warren made a lot of sense, and she ended up playing a major role in defending consumers. It gets a little fuzzy here.. She basically came up with the good parts of Dodd-Frank, which limited the changes banks can charge on credit card accounts. It helped keep people who teetered on their debt from going off the cliff. She also was instrumental in creating what is now the Consumer Finance Protectio Bureau. Now, we are not advocates of creating government agencies for everything. In a perfect world, Congress should be able to write legislation to do the same thing. Also, the scope of the bureau has not been clearly defined, but that's not the focus of today's dicussion, so we'll avoid that today. However, thanks to lobbyists, Congress is not a place where a simple cap on charges can be passed...
Back to our point. Thanks in large part to that inability, the CFPB was created, and nearly all advisors to Barack Obama had one recommended person to run the bureau - Elizabeth Warren. Republicans fought tooth and nail against Warren, so Obama backed off nominating her, and instead chose Richard Cordray. You may have heard about this lately.... So, instead of being a basically no-name bureaucrat at a small government agency, Warren was recruited for something else - the US Senate in Massachusetts.
Yep, she is the prime challenger to Scott Brown for the Democrats to gain back Ted Kennedy's old seat - and from all polls, she is handily kicking Brown's ass. Partly due to it being Massachusetts, partly due to her credentials, and partly due to Brown being unable to do anything he wanted to, but Brown is in serious trouble. Warren wasn't even looking for a Senate seat. Decent candidates often don't - only people with overblown senses of self actually LOOK at themselves as Senators. She'd be sitting behind a desk in Washington, playing with numbers all day. Instead, the GOP went to war over nothing to very little, and now she likely will be taking back a very important seat in the Senate for the next six years.... That's how it goes in life.
It reminds us of an old story about a Cuban pitcher back in the early 50's... he tried out for a few teams, but none of them would sign him, so he went home, and went into politics instead. His name? Fidel Castro. At the time, we're sure he would have much rather been a pitcher, but when that door closed, all the other options opened up his mind for him. Same thing with Warren. On the whole, the GOP has gained nothing by the obstructionism in this case. Measuring what they will lose will be easy. Next time, they may realize keeping the happy mouse in his box is a better outcome..
.
1 comment:
Mike--Liz Warren is a clear danger to business. Some of the measures and ideas she has are so outlandish as to be down-right frightening. But then again she is to the left of Kennedy and Obama...teg
Post a Comment