Almost every exit poll conducted on Election Day found that, more than any other issue, voters’ concerns about the economy helped to return Donald Trump to the White House and Republicans to control of both houses of Congress.
Americans who felt the sting of inflation and struggled to make ends meet as companies steadily raised prices for necessities such as groceries and clothing voted in the hopes that a new administration and Congress would provide relief for their families.
So it is particularly surprising that one of the first federal agencies to be scrutinized by the new administration is one that has returned billions of dollars to many of the same consumers who had relied on Washington leaders to protect their wallets.
On Nov. 27, Elon Musk, who, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tasked by President-Elect Trump with leading a new Department of Government Efficiency, posted on his platform X that he wants to “Delete CFPB,” referring to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The agency, Musk claimed, was one of “too many duplicative regulatory agencies” in Washington. However, no other federal agency returns money to Americans’ bank accounts in the same way that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does.
Since its inception, the agency has returned more than $19 billion in cash to individuals who have been duped by financial institutions, including predatory payday lenders and even some of the country’s largest banks.
It has done so under both Republican and Democratic presidents, including major actions against Wells Fargo and Equifax during President Trump’s first term, which resulted in a $425 million return to consumers. (Both actions began under the Obama administration, but Trump’s CFPB directors oversaw the fines’ execution.)
The money recovered is distributed to those affected by the institutions’ wrongdoing via the CFPB’s victims’ relief fund. To date, over 200 million Americans have been eligible for fund payments. The agency has also completely cancelled many consumers’ debts and reduced loan terms for many others.
In fact, just days after Musk posted his message on X, the CFPB announced that it was mailing refund checks to more than 4 million people who had been duped by so-called credit repair companies, such as Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com, which illegally collected fees from consumers seeking relief from the effects of economic woes on them and their families.
The companies will pay $2.7 billion in consumer redress and civil penalties, with $1.8 billion going directly to those who suffered losses as a result of the scam.
It’s no surprise that the CFPB has broad, bipartisan support, with more than eight in ten Americans supporting the agency’s various enforcement actions. Americans in both red and blue states appear to support returning money to those who have been cheated.
The agency’s impact is felt in other ways as well. In Oklahoma, the CFPB gathered evidence that assisted retired Lt. Col. Susan Parisi in her battle against loan company GreenSky, which duped her into a high-interest loan she never agreed to.
The CFPB determined that GreenSky was using “deceptive” and “fraudulent” tactics and ordered the company to refund $9 million to customers. My organization is assisting Lt. Col. Parisi in her class action lawsuit on behalf of others who were duped by GreenSky.
So, why is an agency that has been so successful in returning money to so many people being targeted for “deletion?” Because, in the process of holding wrongdoers accountable, it has encountered some of the most powerful people in the country.
Musk’s post on X, for example, appears to have been prompted by complaints from Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist whose companies have been sanctioned (and, in the case of Lend Up Loans, shut down) as a result of CFPB investigations and actions.
Andreessen accused the agency of “terrorizing financial institutions,” and he was visibly enraged when the CFPB discovered that Lend Up misled customers about high-interest loans and overcharged US service personnel.
President-elect Trump and Republicans in Congress should not let Andreessen’s views overshadow the overwhelming public opinion that the agency is doing important work that helps those who rely on financial institutions and lenders during difficult times.
Even under the first Trump administration’s CFPB directors, who imposed fewer fines on companies than Biden and Obama appointees, the agency returned over $1 billion to consumers. Millions of Americans will receive direct relief and money in their wallets. “Deleting” the agency would almost certainly mean that no such relief would ever reach consumers again.
Fortunately, neither Musk nor the incoming administration can completely eliminate the CFPB, which receives funding from the Federal Reserve under a model upheld by the United States Supreme Court that is designed to protect it from political interference.
If Republicans and Democrats are serious about providing real, meaningful economic relief to Americans, they must ensure that the firewall remains in place and the CFPB continues to function.
Sharon McGowan is the CEO of the legal advocacy organization Public Justice.
