Ayotte’s vote favors Wall Street insiders

Monday, December 26, 2011

To the Editor:

The U.S. Senate should have voted to confirm Richard Cordray as the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Instead, the vote was filibustered by a minority of senators, including Kelly Ayotte. This is bad news for New Hampshire consumers. The CFPB was designed in response to the 2008 financial meltdown. Its mission is to ensure that Wall Street bankers can never again create the chaos that brought our economy to the brink of collapse in 2008.

The CFPB won’t gain its full capacity to rein in dishonest lenders and bankers until a director is confirmed, and it is Congress’s job to appoint someone. But some, including our own Sen. Ayotte, have said they’ll block the appointment until the authority and funding for the CFPB are cut dramatically, potentially preventing the Bureau from doing its job. This is not the way the Senate is supposed to work out their differences on policy.

The changes Ayotte signed on to were proposed by Wall Street insiders and are supported by Republican congressional leadership, but they are bad for any Granite Stater who has a mortgage or wants to own a home, has student loans, or carries a credit card. We need to hold Sen. Ayottte accountable for her vote and send her a clear message. Future efforts to chip away at the CFPB and other Wall Street reforms may win her points with Congressional leadership in Washington, but they won’t get approval here at home.

ADDIE SHANKLE

Milford