Many of us connect the phrase “follow the money” to the corruption and illegal activity memorialized in the movie All the President’s Men. But the reach of that phrase goes far beyond the Watergate scandal and in fact, applies to so much corporate greed happening today. This couldn’t be more true than the present-day attacks on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—which the Trump administration is trying to effectively shutter. 

President Trump and his allies claim their shuttering of the CFPB is part of their efforts to save taxpayers money but when it comes to an agency that has put more than $20 billion back in the hands of the people of this country, their math, logic, and rhetoric simply do not add up. 

Take for example, the work CFPB has done on medical debt and who stands to benefit if Trump and his allies are successful in dismantling the bureau. 

Last year, the CFPB finalized a rule to prevent medical debt from appearing on credit reports—a victory that meant millions could finally buy a home, obtain a car loan, or start a business without medical bills affecting their credit scores and holding them back.Now with billionaires and corporate special interests pushing to dismantle the CFPB, the rule may not go into effect. In addition, some members of Congress have introduced a Congressional Review Act challenge that, if successful, would nullify the medical debt rule – keeping medical debt on credit reports. If that happens, the very interests pushing to shutdown the CFPB will reap the benefits while everyday families will suffer.

Make no mistake: the only ones who benefit from a weakened CFPB include the financial services companies and debt collectors looking to squeeze even more money from struggling families.

If these attacks succeed, we will see more families trapped in medical debt, unable to buy a home or secure a stable financial future. Seniors will be forced to ration medication, skip critical treatments, or go without basic necessities like food and electricity just to stay afloat. We will see more children growing up in households drowning in bills, where every paycheck is stretched thin, every unexpected expense is a crisis, and financial insecurity becomes a lifelong burden. And, without the CFPB’s consumer complaint process and enforcement actions against unscrupulous debt collectors, more people will be  haunted by “zombie bills”—debts they’ve already paid or never owed in the first place, yet debt collectors will continue to harass them with relentless calls and threats.

Medical debt isn’t a personal failure—it’s a policy failure. No one chooses to get sick or injured, yet millions of people in America are forced into financial ruin simply for seeking care. Adding insult to injury, medical bills are riddled with errors—studies show that a significant percentage contain mistakes, leading people to be wrongly charged for services they never received or already paid for.

This is not an abstract policy debate; it impacts millions of people. People like Misty from Colorado. At age 23, Misty underwent life-saving heart surgery, leaving her with $200,000 in medical bills and unable to divorce her abusive partner. Because medical debt had destroyed her credit score, Misty could not get housing, a car, or a credit card on her own, forcing her to stay in an abusive relationship for 20 years. Misty studied and got her license to be an insurance provider, but she could not get a job because prospective employers checked her credit as part of the hiring process.

That’s why the CFPB has been so critical: it has finalized a rule to stop medical debt from wrecking credit scores, increased scrutiny on predatory medical credit cards with sky-high deferred interest rates, protected patients from aggressive debt collection tactics, and helped patients being pursued for bills they do not owe. The CFPB has also recognized what banks and financial experts already know—medical debt is not a reliable predictor of someone’s creditworthiness or ability to repay a loan. Unlike other types of debt, medical bills often result from emergencies or billing errors, not financial irresponsibility.

The CFPB rule is a gamechanger for Misty and millions like her. 

Gutting the CFPB would let predatory lenders and debt collectors off the hook—allowing them to exploit working families even more. Without oversight, medical debt will continue to trap people in financial hardship, all while corporate players profit off a broken system. 

And this attack on financial protections for people isn’t happening in isolation. It’s part of a larger agenda that prioritizes corporate profits over people’s health. The same policymakers trying to gut the CFPB are also pushing to massively cut Medicaid—the very program that keeps millions of people from falling into medical debt in the first place. When you strip financial protections and slash health care access at the same time, the result is devastating: families drowning in debt, forced to delay or forgo care, their hopes for economic stability crushed, all while corporate executives continue to profit.

Follow the money. Dismantling the CFPB isn’t about saving taxpayer money, it’s all about corporate greed.