OMB and CFPB director Mick Mulvaney

The courts are still mulling whether Mick Mulvaney can serve as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when Leandra English, the deputy director of the CFPB has a strong claim to the position. That claim is based in the leadership succession process as laid out in the law creating the bureau. Nonetheless, Mulvaney isn't too busy holding down his second job (he's also Director of the Office of Management and Budget) or too worried about whether his actions at the CFPB are legal to get to work destroying the good stuff the agency has done.

Late on Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is planning to "reconsider" the Payday Rule, an Obama-era rule that created the first federal restrictions on payday loans. The rule takes aim at predatory practices by payday lenders—companies which give out high-interest loans and disproportionately target low-income borrowers, by requiring them to assess a borrower's ability to pay back debt—and capping the number of payday loans individuals can obtain. […] "This is exactly what we've been fearing," says Lauren Saunders, the associate director of the National Consumer Law Center. "Mulvaney seems to be planning to undo critically important rules to protect people against the most predatory lenders who trap people in a cycle of debt." Tuesday afternoon's announcement is the clearest signal yet that Mulvaney is bringing years of his proposals to life now that he has the opportunity to reshape an agency he's long maligned. The CFPB's loosened approach to payday lenders is in line with Mulvaney's own history. As a congressman, he received more than $60,000 in campaign donations from payday lenders. And the CFPB's plan to weaken the payday rule echoes a bill that Mulvaney sponsored in 2016 as a congressman.

Because, dammit, you can't give poor people a break if it means a loan shark financial services company loses a few bucks.