Sen. Elizabeth Warren: U.S. success due to government regulation

The government not only has a right to regulate the American people, but regulation is really the key to the country’s success, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Thursday.

“It’s thanks to federal agencies that no one has to worry that those white pills are baking soda instead of antibiotics or that the paint on the baby’s crib is laced with lead,” she said, in prepared remarks reported in Politico.

Ms. Warren honed in on President Obama’s pick of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and said Republicans who contest his nomination, and push for restrictions on the agency’s powers, are on the wrong side of the issue. They’re trying to weaken a key consumer protection, she said in the Politico report.

“Blocking Rich Cordray is about keeping the game rigged, keeping the game rigged so that consumers remain in the dark — and a few bad actors can rake in big profits,” Ms. Warren said in the Politico report.

Republicans, meanwhile, see their objection to Mr. Cordray’s nomination as based in constitutional law.

As Breitbart reports, Mr. Obama tried to make a recess appointment of Mr. Cordray on Jan. 4, 2012, when Congress argued it was not really in recess. Then, House Speaker John A. Boehner called the appointment “an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab,” Breitbart reported.

The president renominated Mr. Cordray to head the CFPB last week, reigniting controversy.

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