New Website Exposes “Protect America’s Consumers” – The Shady Interest Group Behind the CFPB Smear Campaign
Front Group Determined to Undermine Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Led by Man with History of Shadowy Tactics
Washington, D.C. – Today, Allied Progress and American Family Voices launched a website highlighting the true motivations behind the shady front group called Protect America’s Consumers. The website, ProtectConsumersFromProtectConsumers.com, illustrates exactly how industry insiders twist reality in an effort to sneak their agenda past the American people and ultimately protect their own interests.
“Protect America’s Consumers is attempting to fool the American people by claiming that it wants to save the CFPB. In reality it wants to do the exact opposite and with this campaign, we are bringing attention to this sham,” said Lauren Windsor, the executive director of American Family Voices, a group that is actually dedicated to safeguarding the CFPB.
The website explains that Protect America’s Consumers is actually an “astroturf group,” or a group that bills itself as a grassroots organization but does not have any members. In reality, it’s funded by unknown sources and is aligned with shady Koch Brothers-connected characters all the way down the chain. The only person publicly affiliated with the group is its spokesperson Steve Gates, who has worked with organizations in the past that have been caught faking grassroots activity, even forging letters to Congress.
The new website out today, ProtectConsumersFromProtectConsumers.com, offers tips on how to identify “shady industry-backed groups” and guides readers on ways to avoid letting Protect America’s Consumers trick them. It walks visitors through the various shadowy tactics that Protect America’s Consumers has used, and gives them a chance to tell their senators that they support the CFPB.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers important safeguards to hardworking Americans, and ensures fair and transparent business practices that protect consumers,” said Karl Frisch, the executive director of Allied Progress. “It is ironic that a group claiming to support the CFPB has such difficulty with the truth when discussing the agency. No wonder they hide in the shadows.”
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Allied Progress uses hard-hitting research and creative campaigns to hold powerful special interests accountable and empower hardworking Americans.
American Family Voices is a strong voice for middle class and working class families on economic, health care, and consumer issues.