In a speech at the American Bankers Association Summit Tuesday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) called for an end to the Dodd-Frank Act, but provided few details on how to make it happen.
Constantly referring to the Dodd-Frank Act as the Obama Financial Control Law, Hensarling said, “I will not rest until Dodd-Frank is ripped out by its roots and tossed on the trash-heap of history.”
He added that the law is a monument to the arrogance and hubris of man in that its answer to incomprehensible complexity and government control is yet more incomprehensible complexity and more government control.
The chairman also called the CFPB the very definition of tyranny, adding, “It is a case study in the overreach and pathologies of the unaccountable administrative state run amok. At almost every opportunity, the bureau abuses and exceeds its statutory authority, which is already immense. The bureau operates with such secrecy, unaccountability and bureaucratic tyranny it would make a Soviet Commissar blush.”
After the completion of the CFPB's qualified mortgage rule, one third of black and Hispanic borrowers will be denied homeownership, Hensarling said, citing a Federal Reserve report.
“Regrettably, it looks like the consumer protection agency is going to 'protect' millions of Americans right out of owning a home,” he added.
While the Texan did not offer much in the way of details of how to unwind the CFPB, he listed ways to make the Fed more accountable, including passing the Federal Oversight Reform and Modernization Act from the House.
He blamed the Fed for keeping interest rates low for an extended period of time, helping to create the housing bubble.
Additionally, he said of the central bank, “Separate and apart from monetary policy, the Fed – thanks to the Obama Financial Control Law – can now functionally control every major corner of the financial services sector of the economy. And it can do so as part of a shadow regulatory system that is neither transparent nor accountable to the American people.”
He added that this not only harms economic growth but is an affront to the due process, checks and balances, and the rule of law.
Hensarling concluded there are two different futures and two different visions of the economy.
“We reject trickle down government and instead celebrate the risk-taking entrepreneurial spirit that has made America the shining light, the envy of the world and the last best hope of mankind on this earth,” he said.
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