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Republican Nightmare: Putting Elizabeth Warren to Work Now
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By Simon Johnson

President Obama is finally looking for bold, creative, and clever ways
to change the way the US economy operates – preferably with measures
that will take effect by the November midterms and change the tone of
the broader political debate. His tax proposals this week have some
symbolic value, but in the broader sense all of these fiscal
suggestions are tinkering at the margins.

What could he possibly do that would grab people’s attention, mobilize
his political base, and put his opponents on the defensive? There is
an easy answer: Appoint Elizabeth Warren to start running the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) immediately.

And the brilliant part of this idea – as explained by Shahien
Nasiripour at the Huffington Post (see alsoDavid Dayen’s Thursday
coverage)– is that the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation allows
the person charged with setting up this new agency to be an outright
appointment, rather than a nomination subject to Senate confirmation.

Elizabeth Warren’s credentials are impeccable – she came up with the
original idea for the CFPB, she pushed effectively for it to become
legislation, and she has proved most effective in her oversight role
as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) for the Troubled
Asset Relief Program. And her manifesto for the CFPB is sensible and
actually pro-business – although she naturally opposes the specific
ways in which big banks mistreat people.

No doubt Republicans in the Senate would try to derail her nomination
to head the CFPB as they have done with numerous other nominations
over the past year and a half. Their motivation would not be her
views or expertise – she has earned serious Republican respect as a
result of her COP role – just part of their electoral strategy to
block the president’s agenda and to undermine an agency they have
consistently opposed.

The Treasury Secretary is explicitly authorized by an Act of Congress
to pick an interim head for the new agency – with a view to getting it
up and running immediately (in fact, what has he been waiting for?)
Presumably the Senate (and the House) passed this specific measure
expressly to expedite the CFPB’s work.

Professor Warren has strong political support and would get the new
agency off to a great start. She would represent the Obama
administration’s serious attempt to rein in financial misbehavior – at
the same time as keeping the economic recovery on track. Anyone who
thinks she would be bad for American families has not been paying
close attention. And best of all, she is very good at explaining what
she is doing and why that makes sense.

The president needs clearer messages and stronger substance – and he
needs them fast. He should move at once to appoint Elizabeth Warren.

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