Keep consumer bureau on right path

President Donald Trump’s White House is attempting to make Mick Mulvaney, director of its Office of Management and Budget, interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — the agency that Ohio’s own Rich Cordray built into a formidable force for financial fairness and honesty. This brazen move ignores the the law’s stipulation that until a new director is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, the CFPB is to be run by its present deputy director.

As a member of the U. S. House, Mulvaney, a South Carolina Republican, cosponsored a bill to do away with the CFPB, and in a House committee hearing, said “I don’t like the fact that CFPB exists, I will be perfectly honest with you.” He’s also on record calling the CFPB “a sick, sad joke.”

There is no reason to believe that he would look out for consumers’ — or the larger economy’s — interests. A lot of Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and retirement savings in the 2008 recession, brought upon us by the financial-services sector, and the politicians of both major parties who did their bidding.

It can happen again, unless the CFPB is allowed to protect those who need protecting. Mulvaney disagrees, and has no business running the CFPB.

This is a good time to let Sen. Rob Portman know that we would like to see the CFPB keep doing its job. Columbus