Anti-CFPB Group Amps up Rhetoric with TV Ad (Nov. 11, 2015)
A 30-second advertisement that aired during last night’s Republican presidential debate took aim at the CFPB and raised the hackles of the bureau’s proponents. The ad shows a room full of people sitting at desks indiscriminately stamping “Denied” on every piece of paper put in front of them. In the background hang red banners with images of CFPB Director Richard Cordray and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is the architect of the CFPB.
During the ad, a voiceover says: “They call it the CFPB, Washington’s latest regulatory agency designed to interfere with your personal financial decisions—that car loan you needed, that mortgage, that personal loan? With the [CFPB], those who need help the most are denied. Washington, D.C., controlling your decisions, limiting your opportunity. Tell Congress to stop the CFPB now before they deny you.” The ad was paid for by the American Action Network, an independent, nonprofit organization that is not affiliated with or controlled by any political group, according to its Website. The group also declares its primary goal is to put “center-right ideas into action by engaging the hearts and minds of the American people and spurring them into active participation in our democracy.”
Although the organization claims no party affiliation, the tone of the ad clearly is in lockstep with the position of Tea Party Republicans, many of whom are leery of the CFPB’s power and have been trying to undo or restructure the bureau since before Dodd-Frank became law. Republican legislators have introduced a number of bills to restructure the CFPB, but the legislation is likely on the road to nowhere because President Obama has promised to veto any bill to change the bureau in significant ways.
Sen. Warren took umbrage with last night’s ad and quickly turned to Twitter with the Tweet: “So … Can we talk about that ad that just ran during the #GOPDebate where I look like a Communist dictator?” She later Tweeted, “… We’re ready to fight back to protect the @CFPB.”
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