The lines are clear: it’s the people versus the banks and Wall Street. While both the House and Senate bills do not go far enough and have already been, in my view, watered down, there is one issue that we can still fight hard on–and have the back of the president: an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

  It is clear that banks and the business community are entirely opposed to strong consumer protection. In today’s Wall Street Journal, we learn that the Chamber of Commerce is mobilizing to kill any independent agency:

The Chamber has launched a lobbying campaign opposing the consumer agency.

"You can’t find a single national business organization that came out to endorse" the White House’s consumer-protection proposal, said Bruce Josten, an executive vice president at the Chamber.

  We should not be surprised by this stance. Wall Street, the banks and too many businesses have made profits based on preying on consumers. The greed that flowed through the financial community for 30 years, particularly the last decade, directly led to the creation of a broad scam, whether the scam was sub-prime mortgages or other frauds that ended up bankrupting millions of hard-working Americans.

  The president’s proposal was right: we need an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

  And we can win this–if the president acts as he did in the final days of the health care legislative fight. While the end result was a bill that is conservative and weak, the bill gained momentum, in my view, precisely when the president did what he should have done from the outset: shined a bright light on the greed and avarice of the insurance industry.

  He should do the same thing with Wall Street–starting today. Do not try to make a deal that compromises the American consumer. Tell the truth, repeat it every day and say it loudly: the robbery by Wall Street of the people must stop and it must stop today.