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Government Gone Rogue
Townhall.com ^ | August 8, 2015 | Jerry Rogers

Posted on 08/08/2015 5:55:30 AM PDT by Kaslin

No place in our Constitution is the president granted supremacy to act legislatively without Congress. And no place in our laws is the president given authority to use executive branch agencies to criminalize whole segments of the economy it considers unworthy. However, we know from the public record that President Obama is using the Justice Department (DOJ), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in something called "Operation Choke Point" to target small businesses by smothering their access to financial services. Without the ability to process payments, the administration chokes off the oxygen (money) needed for these “Mom and Pop” shops to survive. It’s a form of political nihilism never before seen in our nation’s history.

Most Americans are familiar with the DOJ and the FDIC. However the CFPB, a federal agency established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act, has been operating under the radar for far too long.

Dodd-Frank effectively gave the CFPB unlimited regulatory power with little congressional oversight. The bureau’s budget is not subject to congressional appropriations—no power of the purse—because the Federal Reserve, not Congress, funds the agency. Given its independence from congressional scrutiny, the CFPB’s power to regulate is essentially a government license to destroy. What’s more, the CFPB is building a massive database on the financial transactions of every American. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a libertarian think tank based in Washington D.C., has argued that the CFPB has “unaccountable power over the daily lives of the American people” that results “in a lack of public accountability, creating a power grab over every U.S. citizen.”

During most of our nation’s history, families, communities, churches, civic groups, and “Mom and Pop” businesses (i.e., civil society) have served as firewalls to restrain big government from flaming out of control. Americans with blemishes on their credit scores or short credit histories do not have the luxury of going to the big banks—SunTrust, Chase, Wells Fargo—for a small loan. These consumers depend upon payday lenders as credit and loan options. If the CFPB has its way, these lenders will be forced to permanently close their doors. Millions of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck will have no where to go for short-term loans. The CFPB will have cut off an important financial option for working-class, middle-income Americans. Resources needed for emergency car repairs or to replace an appliance will no longer be available.

Ideological bureaucrats with a disdain for anything—the rule of law, the American people, civil society—opposed to their agenda are wreaking havoc on our economy and our liberty. The expansion of federal power—and more specifically the expansion of the executive branch—is the modus operandi of President Barack Obama. Since his first day in office, this president has sought to accumulate power and centralize control. There is no higher law for Obama than his own ideological self-interest. Obama acts more like a plutocrat or mafia boss than the leader of a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

The CFPB is actively engaged in closing down businesses while at the same time collecting dossiers on American citizens’ personal, financial transactions. Congress should abolish the CFPB or, at the very least, put it under the appropriations process. It’s time for Congress to reign in this rogue agency.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 08/08/2015 5:55:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
It’s time for Congress to reign in this rogue agency.

Congress is part of the rogue government.

2 posted on 08/08/2015 6:00:13 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: skeeter
Congress is part of the rogue government.

If they weren't part of it, they would have done something about it already.

3 posted on 08/08/2015 6:16:34 AM PDT by Mark17 (How could anyone suspend himself upon a cross and die for me, die willingly, to set us free.)
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To: Kaslin

On one hand the government encourages illegal activity, illegal immigration, because it makes neighborhoods safer i.e. illegals more willing to come forward and report what they know.

But in Operation Choke Point, the government which views gun ownership as a unwanted activity does not want to know about the guns sales that would be recorded through payment processing.


4 posted on 08/08/2015 6:16:49 AM PDT by School of Rational Thought
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To: School of Rational Thought

I have read that illegals do not now need a 90 day residency requirement to buy a gun. If that’s not sedition on the part of the obama regime, I don’t know what is.

There aren’t enough lampposts.


5 posted on 08/08/2015 6:18:33 AM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto!)
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To: skeeter

Exactly. We have a rogue congress, rogue presidency, and rogue judiciary run by a rogue uniparty and propped up by a rogue media. Focusing on this silly agency is like getting concerned over a hangnail when you have stage 4 cancer.


6 posted on 08/08/2015 6:40:35 AM PDT by RKBA Democrat ( The ballot is a suggestion box for slaves and fools)
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To: School of Rational Thought
Wikipedia page on Operation Choke Point
7 posted on 08/08/2015 6:44:14 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Kaslin

Cash, Barter. End of them tracking you.


8 posted on 08/08/2015 6:47:22 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Section 20.)
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To: Kaslin

Later


9 posted on 08/08/2015 7:15:40 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: RKBA Democrat; All

“We have a rogue congress, rogue presidency, and rogue judiciary run by a rogue uniparty and propped up by a rogue media.”

Worth repeating.

They have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies


10 posted on 08/08/2015 7:21:39 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Kaslin

true, but obammy is a negro so one can not challenge his illegalities regardless how absurd cause you don’t want to be labeled a racist now do ya?


11 posted on 08/08/2015 7:35:09 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ( Obammy is a lie, a mooselimb and pond scum.)
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To: skeeter
Congress is part of the rogue government.

Yep - it's time for State legislatures/Governors/Sheriffs to put their feet down and tell the Feds to shove it.

12 posted on 08/08/2015 8:21:05 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Kaslin
Thank you for posting this important explanation of why the assertions by Fiorina and other debate participants who stated that Dodd-Frank must be repealed are important and should be talked about in local communities all over the country.

Without the small banks who have helped their communities by providing startup loans and assistance for entrepreneurs, "main street" could not have thrived and produced jobs. The Democrats' use of this tactic to "choke" off the rights of individuals and small businesses is repulsive and the antithesis of what our Constitution's limits on the power of do-gooders in government was all about.

Debate watchers, absent an explanation of Dodd-Frank's implications for individual citizens and the small business sector, may tend to just hear the words and not realize the critical dangers that D-F poses for their lives and that of their children.

13 posted on 08/08/2015 9:00:37 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: loveliberty2
Thank you for posting this important explanation of why the assertions by Fiorina and other debate participants who stated that Dodd-Frank must be repealed are important and should be talked about in local communities all over the country.

Maybe this is what Rep. Maxine Waters was talking about...

14 posted on 08/08/2015 5:26:11 PM PDT by rdb3 (What did you dream? It's alright, we told you what to dream!)
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To: combat_boots

I have read that illegals are now being “appointed”, not elected to county commissioner positions that make and enforce county law. So illegals are now making law for the legal citizens of America!


15 posted on 08/09/2015 9:39:38 AM PDT by thirst4truth (America, What difference does it make?)
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To: combat_boots
I have read that illegals do not now need a 90 day residency requirement to buy a gun.

I would think anyone here illegally should have no right whatsoever to own a firearm. What part of the word "illegal" do we not understand?

16 posted on 08/09/2015 12:45:22 PM PDT by The Duke ( Azealia Banks)
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To: The Duke

Many traitors and many minions following their lead. I hope Justice finds them all.


17 posted on 08/09/2015 5:19:58 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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