Democrats in Congress constructed the CFPB to be insulated from accountability by the political branches. This fits the progressive vision of an administrative state run by supposed experts who will instruct Americans on proper behavior whether they like it or not.
The Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB tried to insulate it from presidential control by saying the bureau’s director could only be removed “for cause.” The Supreme Court found that unconstitutional in 2020, and now the Justices will consider the agency’s funding mechanism that is intended as protection from Congressional appropriations.
Dodd-Frank requires the Federal Reserve each year to transfer whatever “amount determined by the Director to be reasonably necessary” to fund the Bureau’s operation, as long as the amount does not exceed $734 million, which is adjusted annually for inflation. Any money the director requests and doesn’t spend rolls over to the following year.
The idiocracy, at least, is bipartisan.
If you could pick a visual metaphor for the current quality of our national political leadership, it might be the image of Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a radical New York Democrat, pulling the fire alarm handle by a door in the Cannon House office building on Saturday.
There are two competing claims about Mr. Bowman’s motivation for falsely shouting “fire” in a crowded political theater. The first, from the congressman himself, is that he was simply trying to exit the building in a rush to perform his democratic duties.
The other, suspected by almost everyone else, is that he deliberately set off the alarm because evacuating the Capitol would force a suspension of proceedings and help fellow Democrats who were clamoring for more time to consider the legislation. Neither reflects well on Mr. Bowman.
If you believe his explanation, it seems that a 47-year-old man, a former school principal no less, presumably by now familiar with the building where he’s worked for nearly three years, thought that he could pull a clearly marked fire-alarm handle that wouldn’t set off an alarm. The alternative is that he deliberately generated a false alarm, summoning hard-pressed emergency services to interrupt a lawful government proceeding.
Leaving observers to decide whether you are a knave or a fool is a well-worn bipartisan tradition these days. God knows there are enough of both on the Republican side of politics too.
The ouster [of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy] captures the degraded state of the Republican Party in this era of rage. Members in safe seats can fuel their own fund-raising and careers by claiming to “fight” against all and sundry without doing the hard work to accomplish what they claim to be fighting for. Mr. Gaetz is the prototype of this modern performance artist, as he raises money for a potential run for Florida Governor.
As we went to press, the path forward for the House wasn’t clear. North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry becomes Speaker Pro Tem, per a list Mr. McCarthy had submitted to the House clerk. But the search for a permanent Speaker could be long and chaotic.
Beware of the return of net neutrality.
Religious persecution is nothing new to Massachusetts. But the commonwealth’s recent denial of a Catholic couple’s application to become foster parents because of their faith is a notable variation on the mass hysteria that once sent “witches” to the executioner.
My analogy is hyperbolic only insofar as we accept that Catholicism disqualifies one from full participation in civic life. In this instance, Michael and Catherine “Kitty” Burke were told they weren’t qualified to be foster parents unless they vowed to support a child should he or she someday identify as “LGBTQIA.” Talk about a litmus test.
In fact, during a rigorous interview process with a social worker to determine their fitness as foster parents, the Burkes said they would love and support a foster child regardless of the child’s sexual or gender identity. But they also said they’d continue to honor their faith and its teachings on marriage and sexuality.
Gary Galles reviews Thomas Sowell’s new book, Social Justice Fallacies. Here’s Prof. Galles’s conclusion:
Thomas Sowell’s Social Justice Fallacies is well worth reading. And doing so is important because “the painful reality is that no human being has either the vast range of consequential knowledge, or the overwhelming power, required to make the social justice ideal become a reality.” I don’t know of a living economist who can help us see our way out of betting society’s future on the proposition that it is not a reality.
Jenin Younes tweets: (HT Jay Bhattacharya)
I will only vote for a candidate next year who promises (believably) to clean house at HHS, CDC, NIH, FDA, etc. It’s essential that the corrupt officials who dug their heels in on Covid mitigation measures and participated in the censorship regime be removed from their posts.
