The Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington DC-Credit: Wiki Commons
As President Trump creates chaos with his orders, many of us cannot follow what corporate America is getting away with. It may be that President Trump’s tax plan will further cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations. Those bills will be debated in public, and we will know what is being debated and who is voting in favor of the tax breaks.
Under the radar are the regulatory bodies established to protect consumers and competition between businesses. Over the last few days, President Trump has granted corporations their election-day wishes and made the investments in President Trump’s campaign pay off.
The first consumer agency to be changed to pro-corporate was the Federal Trade Commission. The progressive Federal Trade Commissioner, Lina Kahn, was replaced by Andrew Ferguson, the former clerk of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The Commissioner has held two private “Ex Partee” meetings, where the public was not allowed to hear what was being discussed. One was with the National Restaurant Association to hear what the Association had to say about deceptive fees, and the other was with the Travel Management Coalition to discuss unfair or deceptive fees.
When the FTC investigated Elon Musk for anti-competitive practices, Commissioner Ferguson wrote, ” I am glad that after a multi-year war against Elon Musk, the Commission today is defending the interests of an American citizen who is seeking to hold accountable the alleged perpetrators of anti-competitive.”
The FTC is in the process of revoking the rules that were previously made. In accepting President Trump’s appointment, Commissioner Ferguson wrote: “We will end the previous administration’s assault on the American way of life, and we will usher in a new Golden Age for American businesses, workers, and consumers.”
It’s not just the FTC that is under attack. The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was fired as the news covered the announced deportation actions and the announced and then repealed tariffs. The CFPB is “a U.S. government agency dedicated to ensuring you are treated fairly by banks, lenders, and other financial institutions.”
Recently, the CFPB fined Equifax, the credit reporting company, for not properly investigating errors on consumers’ credit reports. The mistakes that Equifax refused to properly investigate cost consumers millions in higher interest and insurance rates. The number of people rejected for loans is still unknown.
CFPB has also taken action against discriminatory lending practices.
President Trump, while signing and then rescinding Presidential orders, appointed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting CFPB director. Mr. Bessent is a former fundraiser for President Trump and the former manager of a billion-dollar hedge fund. He has never represented consumers or been a consumer advocate. His first act was to stop CFPB from defending its actions in court, giving corporations challenging regulations victories.
It is not just President Trump who is gutting consumer protections. The newly elected Republican Attorney General has removed the State’s Consumer advocate who fought against the privatization of water systems.
One of the reasons it is so easy for Corporations to get elected officials to gut consumer protection agencies is the failure of those advocates to bring the public into their decisions. Instead of building support across the state by including consumers, advocates, and organized groups, the State Consumer Advocate remained in Harrisburg. There was no organized opposition when the new Attorney General decided to remove the former Advocate from office.
The surprising belief that “public advocates” have no connection to the public shows a very poor understanding of the power of social movements and organizations. The local “public advocates” do the same. They purposely exclude the public from participating in the positions the Advocate takes.
The belief that those advocates are above us and don’t need to work with us is part of why we have a President Trump. Disrespect for “everyday people” and often the actual contempt of those who try to be heard is palatable at many public hearings.
If we are to have advocates who can represent us, they must include the public in their decision-making. If the CFPB had organized groups in all states, fighting the malfeasance of banks and credit reporting agencies, it would not have been so easy for President Trump, his Republican allies, and the corporations to erase our protections.
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