Just in case anyone thought that the Democratic Party intends to stand idly by while President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party move to undo many of the financial reforms of the last eight years, one of its most outspoken members pledged this week to fight Trump and the Republicans every step of the way.
On Thursday, Trump’s transition team began releasing some of its plans, laying the groundwork for how the Trump administration will fulfill some the promises Trump made on the campaign trail and deliberating about cabinet positions.
One of the main tenets of the Trump team’s plan is the “dismantling” of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Thursday that she and the rest of the Democratic Party are prepared to work with the president-elect if he wants to “increase the economic security of middle-class families.
But if that’s not Trump’s plan, Warren warned that the Democrats will fight back.
“I will put aside our differences and I will work with him to accomplish that goal,” Warren said of Trump in a wide-ranging blog post on her website. “I offer to work as hard as I can and to pull as many people as I can into this effort. If Trump is ready to go on rebuilding economic security for millions of Americans, so am I and so are a lot of other people — Democrats and Republicans.”
But Warren doesn’t want to see Trump and his fellow Republicans undo much of the work done by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“But let’s also be clear about what rebuilding our economy does not mean,” Warren wrote.
“It does not mean handing the keys to our economy over to Wall Street so they can run it for themselves. Americans want to hold the big banks accountable,” Warren wrote.
“That will not happen if we gut Dodd-Frank and fire the cops responsible for watching over those banks, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Warren continued. “If Trump and the Republican Party try to turn loose the big banks and financial institutions so they can once again gamble with our economy and bring it all crashing down, then we will fight them every step of the way.”
Warren, the chief architect of the CFPB, is a passionate supporter of banking regulation and accountability. During the Senate Banking Committee's hearing on the Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal, she called on Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf to resign, pointing out what she said was his "gutless leadership."
Warren acknowledged in her blog that much of Trump’s messaging during the campaign spoke to the real issues that many Americans have with how business is done in Washington.
“If we have learned nothing else from the past two years of electioneering, we should hear the message loud and clear that the American people want Washington to change. It was clear in the Democratic primaries,” Warren wrote. “It was clear in the Republican primaries. It was clear in the campaign and it was clear on election day. The final results may have divided us — but the entire electorate embraced deep, fundamental reform of our economic system and our political system.”
Warren said that Trump’s campaign tapped into the anger that many Americans feel about their station in life right now.
“The truth is that people are right to be angry. Angry that wages have been stagnant for a generation, while basic costs like housing, health care, and child care have skyrocketed,” Warren wrote.
Warren noted that Trump won the presidency “under a Republican flag,” but states that the traditional Republican way of doing business was rejected, in the primary, during the campaign and on election day.
“Regardless of political party, working families are disgusted by a Washington that works for the rich and powerful and leaves everyone else behind. The American people have called out loudly for economic and political reform,” Warren wrote.
“As the loyal opposition we will fight harder, we will fight longer and we will fight more passionately than ever for the rights of every human being in this country to be treated with respect and dignity,” Warren added.
