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Comment by KirinDave | Hacker News Reader

I think I know what you're trying to say here and I probably even agree, but you should know that lots of people try to elevate the tone of political discourse when it's on topic here, so you're going to get down votes.

Perhaps an better thing to say is:

"It is very disappointing that the GOP policy on the CFPB and data privacy is to destroy the former and ignore the later, rather than letting govenrment-mandated corporations with government-granted advantages run roughshod over the American public without any form of accountability.

The GOP and Trump administration are playing a very dangerous game in their transparent attempt to pay back donors, and I will certainly do everything I can to help unseat GOP senators and house reps in my state if this is their policy for the Federal Government. If they're going to grant privileges to companies I demand they also require accountability."

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The sad reality is, this type of behavior is not confined to one party or the other. Money should have no place in politics, otherwise you end up with a plutocracy in a democracies clothing, which is where we have been for some time now.

Equifax is just one of many. After the 2008 financial crisis, no major banking executives saw jailtime. After the Volkswagen scandal on evading emissions tests, only a few low-level scapegoats got pinched. After Valeant systematically acquired and gutted the R&D of countless drug companies, only to raise the prices on existing drugs to levels far unreachable for the average customer, their CEO remained unscathed.

The US government is not a democracy and hasn't been for a long time. It can be bought, and those with deep pockets are treated as sovereign and effectively un-jailable.

I'm sure this criticism applies beyond the US as well, but I'm less familiar with other governments.

Volkswagen Executive Oliver Schmidt was just sentenced to 4 years in prison in the US a few months ago. And 8 other former and current Volkswagen executives have been charged by US prosecutors. Though I doubt any of the others are dumb enough to step foot on American soil.

I figured there would be fact checking: "what about this person?". Yes, I know there were some repercussions e.g. Schmidt for Volkswagen, and some really small players in the financial crisis, but overall most of the top guys walk away clean. There is always a scapegoat.

Orders come from the top down - you make an example by cutting off the head, not the limbs (forgive the violent euphemism, but you get the spirit)

I completely agree about the financial crisis.

But for Volkswagen, remember that pretty much all the top executive are German citizens, living in Germany, a country that is running their own separate investigation of Volkswagen. The US can't grab them, and Germany isn't going to extradite. The only reason we got Schmidt (who was their head of environmental and engineering issues in the US, not exactly a small fish) was because he was dumb enough to visit the US on vacation.

I'm just saying, you can't really blame the US for the lack of prosecution.

Fair point... I think I just wanted to give a few examples that quickly came to mind. Maybe Volkswagen wasn't the best one.

> The sad reality is, this type of behavior is not confined to one party or the other. Money should have no place in politics, otherwise you end up with a plutocracy in a democracies clothing, which is where we have been for some time now.

I don't disagree in general, but in specifics: the GOP has decided the CFPB is going to die, on principle. The CFPB was an awesome and forwards-thinking organization and if we are going to rely on government interventions, they're the type of organization we need to oversee the results. I've worked with an at fintech companies and the CFPB was incredibly friendly and honest with everyone I've talked to.

And having worked at a bank, having that agency as an empowered and potentially wrathful actor was very healthy, agency wide, imo.

I agree there are major campaign finance issues, but let's at least give the Democrats credit for backing and empowering such an agency. It is absolutely necessary.

While the US uses FPTP and the Electoral College, it is never going to be more than a "least bad" system for voters.

"Least-bad" of two options isn't democracy, or rather, it's democracy in the same way that it was in the past when only land owners or men were allowed to vote - a distorted version of the idea that only pays lip service to the goals we talk about it having.

FPTP is horrifically broken here in the UK where at least we have some minority parties that at least influence the situation (which has it's own issues). The US culture of a two party system is so ingrained it's crazy. It always strikes me hardest whenever people talk about "bipartisanship". It's odd to me to so blatantly admit that only two parties matter, even if that is, and has been, the reality.

> The sad reality is, this type of behavior is not confined to one party or the other

Certainly, not only one party engages in corrupt behavior. That doesn't make them equivalent. They're not even close, and the relentless attempts of "both sides do it" are part of the reason we're in this mess.

But whats the objective measure of corruption or otherwise unethical behavior, that delineates the difference?

For most, I think, its mostly confirmation bias.

Your suggestions simply repackage the same basic facts with fancy words.

And the facts get downvoted, even though they are irrefutable: the investigation was initiated by a Democratic appointee, it is now being ended by a Republican appointee.

Meanwhile, Equifax has donated to Republicans, almost exclusively, in the last elections: https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2018&strI... (click on "Party split by Cycle").

I think it's a bit specious to blame Republicans in general for the halt to this investigation rather than Mick Mulvaney, at least with current information. This is a breaking story, so let's give Republican Congressmen a few days to react. If they remain silent and don't loudly complain about this, then we can put some blame on the Republicans in Congress as being complicit in this.

> I think it's a bit specious to blame Republicans in general for the halt to this investigation rather than Mick Mulvaney, at least with current information.

Mulvaney’s anti-CFPB position at least is that of the whole Trump Administration, if perhaps (for the sake of argument) not the entire Republican Party; he isn't an independent rogue actor here.

Pre-tax bill, I might have agreed with you.

But it's pretty clear the party is on board with a kleptocratic approach for donors.

I know that comment will upset folks, and I apologize for being contentious, but the tax bill makes 0 sense unless you intend to keep control of inter-state commerce and reward favorites while also screwing over the middle class by dismantling social services (that the middle class isn't getting as a government benefit, they're paying more outside of taxes to fund it!).

It's shameful and the Republicans are complicit with all of these actions.

This might be true if Mulvaney’s position on the CFPB wasn’t known before he was given the job, and if GOP Senators and Representatives hadn’t already vocalized support for placing a known hostile actor in charge of the bureau.

> Your suggestions simply repackage the same basic facts with fancy words.

We must remember a few things:

1. Not everyone here is from the US or is appraised on the basic facts in US current events. Be respectful of this.

2. There is a small but active group of folks here who will deliberately try to poison discourse for their own motives. Being very explicit in what you say and why you're saying it makes their mission harder.

3. takin tim to type wurds wel zi corumukashun &7& shwz repskt 2 othurz. <-- Did you enjoy parsing this out? Inference and irony laden text is about as fun to read for someone outside it, and maximizes misunderstanding. Given #2, we have enough problems without making more.

But my message doesn't just repackage facts with fancy words, it also makes it clear what my intent is AND makes it clear part of what I intend to do about it. So it's actually more information rich than "money is speech & they donated to republicans."

I assure you, I and many others here are acutely aware that killing the CFPB is a clear example of quid pro quo politics and were it not for the other billion scandals rocking the administration would be the biggest news in 5 years. Hopefully when the dust settles from the investigations of egregious campaign finance violation we can keep our senators and house reps on task restoring this and locking in funding.

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