Elon Musk, named by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, tweeted today that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should be eliminated.

In response, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman issued the following statement: “Elon Musk should do his research (or ask his AI to do it). The CFPB has been a model of government efficiency, returning almost $20 billion to consumers cheated by bank and financial corporation wrongdoing.

“If Musk looks at the facts, he’ll discover: 1) Massive deregulation led to the 2008 financial crisis, which cost American’s trillions, necessitating stronger rules and agencies like the CFPB; and 2) the CFPB was created specifically because none of the overlapping financial regulatory agencies prioritized consumer protection.