While there is still debate about exactly what this year’s presidential election was all about, most agree that it was about the people, the average guy, the families on Main Street and not the lobbyists and bankers on Wall Street. That’s why it would be ludicrous for the new administration and Congress to gut the single most effective consumer protection agency (“Warren pledges to fight for consumer agency,’’ Page A1, Nov. 21).

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took over as the nation’s chief consumer financial regulator just five short years ago, in July 2011, following the second-largest financial crisis in our history. Already, it has recovered and returned nearly $12 billion to more than 27 million victims of unfair practices by wrongdoers ranging from big banks, including Wells Fargo, Chase, and Bank of America, to small debt collectors.

How brazen would it be for some members of Congress to gut the agency at the behest of Wall Street or payday lenders? It’s certainly not the action that consumers would perceive as working for them and not Wall Street.

Deirdre Cummings

Consumer program director

MASSPIRG

Boston