CFPB

Last cycle payday lenders only handed out $1,302,189 to congressional candidates, mostly to incumbents. And mostly to Republicans ($1,054,081). The biggest players were Harpeth Financial Services, Advance America Cash Advance Centers, Advance Financial, Online Lenders Alliance, Select Management Resources and Moneytree, Inc. Since 1990 Payday lenders have contributed $11,754,614 to men and women running for Congress-- $4,214,274 to Democrats and $7,505,887 to Republicans.

Yesterday, Seth Frotman, the top government official (ombudsman) overseeing the $1.5 trillion student loan market resigned from the CFPB-- not just resigned, but resigned in protest over the Trump Regime's open hostility toward protecting the nation’s millions of student loan borrowers. His scathing resignation better pointed out that the Regime "has turned its back on young people and their financial futures."

Probably neverIt doesn't happen that frequently that we get to test political approaches in the real world and see actual results. Something that I expect to help vulnerable red state Senate Democrats: backing policies that are popular with voters.

Conor Lamb (PA) voted with the Democrats on a progressive position yesterday. It was his first time. 11 of his fellow Blue Dogs didn't. And it was an important bill-- overturning a a CFPB rule on equal credit opportunity.

West Virginia is the Trumpiest state in the union. The PVI is R+19 and Trump beat Hillary 489,371 (68.5%) to 188,794 (26.4%). Trump won every single county in the state. (In the primary, Bernie also won every single county in the state and beat Hillary 124,700 (51.4%) to 86,914 (35.8%). In fact, on primary day, there were plenty of candidates where Bernie took more votes than Trump.

When Trump voters went to the polls, how many of them were voting to end the rules to keep blood-sucking payday lenders from ripping them off? Probably not many-- but that's what they're getting. As you know, Trump appointed OMB director Mick Mulvaney acting head of the CFPB-- the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

3 crooks: Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan flanked by Trumpanzee & MulvaneyThere was a bit of a stir over Wells Fargo yesterday morning, Trump's exceedingly and sour joke of a CFPB director, Mick Mulvaney, started it.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency that claims to protect consumers in the financial sector. Instead, it has been used as a legal money-laundering operation for collective causes. The bureau was set up to operate without Congressional oversight and is funded by the Federal Reserve, not Congress. [...]

On Friday, Trump appointed right-wing crackpot and OMB Director Mick Mulvaney acting director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. But there already was an acting director.

Governor John Kasich (R-OH) is term-limited and cannot seek re-election. Former Senator and current Attorney General Mike DeWine, current Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, current Lt. Governor Mary Taylor and multimillionaire backbencher Rep. Jim Renacci are all competing in a fiery Republican primary. Kasich is backing his Lt. Governor but virtually every poll shows her in third place behind DeWine and Husted.