An economist with the Heritage Foundation, an organization the promotes conservative public policies and is the architect behind Project 2025 has echoed comments from Elon Musk calling for the abolishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
EJ Antoni, a research fellow at the organization who focuses on fiscal and monetary policy was interviewed on Fox Business News on Friday on a number of economic topics. At the end of the interview, Antoni was asked about a social media post from Elon Musk last week calling for the elimination of the CFPB because it is a “duplicative” layer of government that is not needed. Is this the kind of agency that should be dumped, Antoni was asked.
“100% on Day One,” Antoni said. “This was an institution that was effectively started by quasi–Marxists and the name is completely misleading. It does not protect consumers. This is not an institution that gets its funding through the normal congressional appropriations process. It actually takes its income from the profits at the Fed but the Fed hasn’t run a profit in quite some time now … well over a year and a half. And so, we’re at a point now where you might be able to actually shut off funding to the CFPB instantly because the Fed hasn’t turned a profit and has no remittances to hand over to the Treasury.”
Musk made his announcement last Wednesday, in response to a video from investor Marc Andreesen, who told podcaster Joe Rogan that the CFPB was “terrorizing” tech firms. It has led to a series of posts and articles about “debanking” and how the government is engaging in “Operation Choke Point 2.0.”
Others, like former CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, have come out in support of Musk’s comment.
Project 2025, which was written by The Heritage Foundation as a blueprint for a Trump second term, also recommended closing the Bureau.
