The Hill News

The Occupy Wall Street protests have performed a huge service by focusing the attention of elected officials on the real frustration and real concerns felt by millions of Americans. Not only do a majority of Americans support the protests, but most agree with many protestors’ most prominent goal: greater accountability for Wall Street.
 
Unfortunately, many on the right are ignoring this stark reality, marginalizing the concerns of millions of voters by demonizing a handful of demonstrators. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Senate, where all but three Republican senators are refusing to take the simplest and easiest step toward Wall Street accountability: confirming a head for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
 
Thanks to Republican obstructionism, the CFPB, tasked with holding big banks accountable to American consumers, has been without a leader since it was created by the Dodd-Frank Act last year. Elizabeth Warren, who conceived of ! the agency and oversaw its creation, would have been the natural fit to lead it, but her unapologetic work holding financial institutions accountable put her on the bad side of Congress’s GOP leadership.

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