Director, Public Citizen's Congress Watch Committee
Director of the Congress Watch committee for Public Citizen, and member of the Executive Committee of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of about 250 labor and consumer groups who have worked for financial reform
Elizabeth Warren and the Politics of Consumer Protection Wall Street's worst nightmare is a heroine to consumer advocates. When has a Harvard professor of bankruptcy been the subject of an admiring rap video? Elizabeth Warren, who helped force a Bureau of Consumer Protection into the Finance Reform bill, was appointed today as a White House advisor. How much clout will she have in the future? Instead of heading up the new bureau, she will report to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, an occasional foe. Will she have the power to write tough rules for mortgages, credit cards and payday loans? Will she ever be asked to enforce them?
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
The week that wouldn't quit Will next week get even weirder? (Special one-hour episode)
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.