For Saturday's weekly address, President Obama was joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to proclaim themselves as America's "strongest advocates for families and consumers."
The two liberal Democrats praised their own work of saving the economy from the recklessness of Wall Street, big banks, and their Republican "allies." The claim goes that the whole financial crisis could've been avoided had there been rules in place to stop these threats.
Obama reminded that he promised to rebuild the economy "on a new foundation" to ensure it would never crash in the same way again.
"President Obama delivered," Warren said with assurance. "He signed into law the toughest Wall Street reforms and strongest consumer protections in generations."
Throwing some credit back to the senator, Obama said, "These reforms have already made our financial system safer and more resilient. And part of passing those strong consumer protections meant establishing the first-ever Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), based on an idea that Senator Warren came up with before the crisis even began."
Through CFPB, dishonest and deceptive practices are being "crack[ed] down on," giving millions of consumers refunds, debt relief, and other protections from lenders and scams.
"Before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you didn’t have a strong ally to turn to if your bank took advantage of you, or you were being harassed or charged inappropriate fees. Now you do," Obama said.
Warren suggests checking with the independent agency's website, CFPB.gov, before making financial decisions.
"Republicans and big banks who opposed these commonsense rules claimed they’d hurt the economy," the president said. "But we’ve seen what happened to the economy when we didn’t have these rules. And despite their claims, our economy is stronger today than it was before the crisis."
"But every year, like clockwork," Warren added, "big banks and their Republican allies in Congress try to roll back these protections and undermine the consumer watchdog, whose only job is to look out for you."
In the end, Obama and Warren's message is that everyone play by the same rules, those on Main Street as well as Wall Street.
"It's about basic fairness for everyone," Warren said.
"Thanks to leaders like Senator Warren, our country, our economy, and our families are better off," Obama concluded.
Reminder: this financial advice comes courtesy of an administration boasting a $19.3 trillion (and counting) national debt.
