(Washington, DC)—On Monday, February 6, 2017, Congressman Al Green (TX-9) released the following statement on President Trump’s anti-consumer executive order.

“The financial crisis of 2008 caused widespread, immeasurable human suffering that devastated hardworking Americans on Main Street, and our nation still feels these effects today. The financial crisis cost our nation more than $13 trillion in economic growth and $9 trillion in household wealth. Many Main Street Americans are still in recovery.

"There were a number of systemically important events that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the passage of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, including:

The stock market all but crashed on September 29, 2008, after it dropped 778 points, when Congress initially rejected a plan to avoid a financial collapse and Great Depression.

Financial conditions were so dire banks stopped lending to each other.

Republican leadership met and pledged (they kept their word I might add) to do everything within their power to oppose President Obama. (Link to news article about Republican opposition)

“President Obama and Democrats acted decisively to pass Dodd-Frank to address the many deficiencies in our regulatory framework that were exposed during the crisis. Our government made a promise to Main Street that it would never again allow Wall Street to take our nation’s economy hostage through mendacity and rapacity (alternative facts and greed).

“However, many members from across the aisle have done everything within their power to obfuscate and eviscerate President Obama’s accomplishments, including the consumer-friendly and economy-stabilizing Dodd-Frank Act.

They opposed and would now eviscerate the Dodd-Frank watchdog that enables the better monitoring of growing risks in the financial system.

They opposed and would now eviscerate the establishment of the Volcker Rule, which prohibited banks from gambling with customers’ money to boost the banks’ profits.

They opposed and would now eviscerate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has been responsible for returning over $11 billion to defrauded Americans, and continues to work to protect Americans from fraud.

They opposed and would now eviscerate the Office of Financial Research, which works to provide lawmakers with information about (systemic) threats to our financial system.

“Now, just as many (not all) Republicans stood in the way of strengthening our financial system from future crises, President Trump is seeking to once again open the door for Wall Street to unfairly profit off of Main Street.

“We urge President Trump to acknowledge the history which led to judicious Wall Street reform, and not return to the disastrous path of injudicious deregulation with little accountability that allows Wall Street the opportunity to rip-off Main Street. We must not allow Wall Street to ‘trump’ Main Street.”