Mulvaney considering letting Wells Fargo off the hook for payments owed to overcharged consumers

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after news broke that Mick Mulvaney may reverse a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau position and allow Wells Fargo to withhold payments to home-buyers who were overcharged:

“What could possibly be the legitimate justification for giving Wells Fargo a pass on paying back customers it has admittedwere overcharged?  Donald Trump’s interference with the CFPB threatens to erode key protections created after the 2008 financial crisis that stand between middle class consumers and deceptive financial industry practices.  Having the only cop on the beat stand down to help big banks increase profit margins is the exact opposite of ‘draining the swamp.’”

On Tuesday, it was similarly reported that the CFPB was reversing itself on whether Nationwide Biweekly Administration should pay millions in penalties for deceiving over 100,000 customers.  This news comes as a series of financial sector companies are already attempting to receive favorable […]

Read more after the jump.

Bridge Project Ad Blasts Republicans, Trump for opening the Floodgates for More Bailouts

Immediately after Republicans in Congress voted to cripple the Wall Street reforms enacted after 2008 and to once again expose the country to the threat of another financial crisis and more bailouts for big banks, Bridge Project released a new digital ad that will run in the districts of 14 House Republicans.

To view Bridge Project’s new ad, “Selling Out Families to Wall Street,” click HERE.

“Congressional Republicans are pushing an agenda that gives to the rich at everyone else’s expense, and their vote to kill protections against future meltdowns and bailouts are a perfect example of their misplaced priorities,” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah. “Like Trumpcare, this will be remembered as a defining vote, and Americans are going to hold Republicans accountable for putting big banks, lobbyists, and the wealthy first.”

The CHOICE Act, which The New York Times wrote is designed to “gut bank regulations,” would  Read more after the jump.

Americans for Tax Reform: “Charlie Wilson – Control”

Americans for Tax Reform attacks Rep. Charlie Wilson over rising national debt, blaming him for “reckless spending,” when in reality, the recession and policies like the Bush tax cuts are the guilty parties. Wilson’s vote for the bank bailout helped prevent a potential depression, and his vote to raise the debt limit didn’t cause new spending — it prevented the economic catastrophe that would have resulted from a default on federal debts.

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Congressional Leadership Fund: “Twinkle”

Citing a series of votes between 2008 and 2011, Congressional Leadership Fund blames Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) for the rising debt. In reality, recent deficits have been fueled by the recession and Bush-era policies like tax cuts for the wealthy. The votes the ad targets, by contrast, were for bills designed to rescue failing banks, the floundering housing market, and a tanking economy, and to raise the federal debt limit – a procedure that does not authorize new spending but does prevent the government from defaulting on its loans.

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Now Or Never PAC: “Radical Agenda”

Now or Never PAC attempts to portray Heidi Heitkamp as a pro-Wall Street, environmental radical, who will “rubber stamp” President Obama’s second-term agenda, but the evidence does not support the group’s claims. After all, Heitkamp’s opponent has taken more than 10 times as much cash from Wall Street than she has — and over $600,000 total from the broader finance, insurance, and real estate sector. That makes Heitkamp’s $22,000 from lawyers whose clients include opponents of fracking look fairly insubstantial – especially when Heitkamp is on the record harshly criticizing President Obama on energy policy.

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Congressional Leadership Fund: “Hall Of Fame”

Congressional Leadership Fund accuses Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) of voting for an expensive stimulus bill that “created jobs in China,” but the article the ad cites points to a project that never actually received any stimulus money. The ad also criticizes Sutton for her support of a cap-and-trade bill and the bank bailout, even though the former would have stimulated the economy with little cost to consumers and the latter, which passed in a bipartisan fashion after urging from President Bush, helped avert another Great Depression.

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Americans for Tax Reform: “B is for Barrow”

Grover Norquist’s anti-tax organization, Americans for Tax Reform, released an ad attacking John Barrow (D-GA). The group, which pushes Norquist’s rigid “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” cites Barrow’s votes for the banking and automotive bailouts as reasons against Barrow’s re-election. However, the ad never mentions the economic context that made both bailouts necessary, or that the bailouts worked. The automaker bailout, for example, saved over a million American jobs in 2009-2010 and one of America’s largest industries.

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American Crossroads: “Add Up”

American Crossroads characterizes Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) as “extreme,” citing several alleged examples of her voting to take tax dollars “out of Wisconsin to pay for her extreme agenda in Washington.” However, the Bush administration’s bipartisan bailout of the financial sector helped prevent a possible depression; the Affordable Care Act does not raise taxes on most Americans and actually reduces the burden on the middle class; and “failed” Recovery Act not only created jobs but also cut taxes for millions of working American families.

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Spirit Of Democracy: “Lois Capps: 14 Years”

Spirit of Democracy America released an ad attacking Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) for her tenure in Congress by asking: “What does America have to show for it?” To make its point, the ad derides her vote for the bipartisan bank bailout and her support for the Recovery Act without mentioning the economic conditions that made these actions necessary, or the possible depression that that was avoided because of them. After calling Capps an “extreme partisan” the ad cites a grade given to the congresswoman by the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative organization the San Francisco Chronicle called “the Grand-daddy of the tax revolt organizations.”

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Crossroads GPS: “Rubber Stamp Bailout”

Crossroads GPS continues to take deeply misleading shots at Heidi Heitkamp’s record in the North Dakota Senate race, this time with an ad designed to suggest that Heitkamp is Wall Street’s candidate, and that President Obama and the Democrats were behind the bailout of the financial sector. President Bush’s bank bailouts were thoroughly bipartisan, though, and nowhere near as costly as they initially seemed. And if you can judge Wall Street’s feelings about the ND race by looking at where they’ve spent their money, it’s clear they believe Rep. Rick Berg (R) will represent their interests better than Heitkamp.

Read more after the jump.