Wasserman Schultz: We Need Regulation to Protect Consumers
Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo engaged in a fiery debate after the Mornings With Maria host held the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman accountable for bomb statements.
Wasserman Schultz, who resigned from her DNC post after leaked emails showed bias against Hillary Clinton’s presidential contender Bernie Sanders, argued Trump’s Treasury Secretary pick, Steve Mnuchin, is trying to undo consumer protections.
“Mnuchin was a Goldman Sachs alumni, an executive at Goldman Sachs. He actually wants to roll back Dodd-Frank,” she said. “He wants to undo all the consumer protections that have been put in place that caused the crash of our economy and that allowed the banks to make money unethically off the backs of consumers.”
“Well that’s arguable,” replied Bartiromo. “We haven’t seen economic growth in this country at all of 3% or higher under President Obama and a lot of people believe the reason is, is because of these regulations that are strangling everybody.”
When Wasserman Schultz chuckled in disbelief, Maria Bartiromo continued to push back.
“I’m serious I’m pushing back with real issues here,” said Bartiromo.
“No you’re pushing back with Republican talking points,” interrupted Wasserman Schultz.
“I have spoken with CEOs and manager after manager, who say, these regulations have shackled…” said Bartiromo.
“So you think we should have just left things the way they were and we should just let the banks do whatever they want without regulations? We shouldn’t protect consumers?” replied Wasserman Schultz.
“I meant the days and the months after the financial crisis…I’m talking about the last two years and the thousands of EPA regulations,” said Bartiromo.
“I’m talking about permanent regulation of a system that was taking advantage of consumers,” Wasserman Shcultz said. “We need regulation of a system that was taking advantage of consumers where tens of thousands of people, more than that, lost their homes. People were economically devastated. You have wastelands of neighborhoods that were dotted with foreclosures and short-sale signs.”
Wasserman Schultz also defended Dodd-Frank after Maria Bartiromo said the regulations were misguided.
“It was not only not misguided, it’s the reason that we were able to get a handle that making sure that banks weren’t able to run over their customers,” she said. “Look you still have banks like Wells Fargo who got caught red-handed even after Dodd-Frank was in place stealing millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, from their own customers, trying to cheat them out of their own money. You don’t think there needs to be a check and a governor who’s actually minding the store?”