GOP Blocks Dodd Bill to Freeze Credit Card Rates

[babylonsister]

http://washingtonindependent.com/68309/gop-blocks-dodd-bill-to-freeze-credit-card-rates

GOP Blocks Dodd Bill to Freeze Credit Card Rates
By Mike Lillis 11/18/09 4:55 PM


Moments ago, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic proposal to freeze credit card rates on existing balances through the holiday season. The bill, sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), would prevent credit card companies from hiking rates and fees on existing balances until the industry reforms passed by Congress earlier this year take effect. Although a few provisions of that law took hold in August, most don’t launch until February or August of 2010. In the meantime, many card companies are hiking rates and fees to beat the law.

“The industry has tried to make one last grab at their customers’ pocketbooks,” Dodd said, just before asking for the consent of Republicans to pass the bill unanimously.

No dice. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) objected “on behalf of several senators on this side of the aisle.” There’s no word yet which other lawmakers he was referring to.

House Democratic leaders have already passed even stronger legislation that would expedite all the credit card reforms in the previously passed bill — not just the ban on hiking rates for existing balances. Dodd hasn’t signed on to the Senate version of the bill.

It’s worth mentioning that the Democrats — folding to pressure from the banks — were themselves responsible for delaying those reforms, which were initially proposed to go into effect much earlier this year.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. K & R

Charming of those Republicans.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. F'rs!

Treasonous f'rs at that!

[jimshoes]

3. Thanks ya rat bastards

May you rot and go hungry for a few years no good fucks.

[DainBramaged]

4. This is a PERFECT example where the Administration needs a spokesperson

to ASK for time on the morning shows and expose these fucks.


But no, we have NO ONE to convey the message concerning these obstructionist fucks.

[myrna minx]

5. My rates were jacked on Monday.

Thanks for nothing, jerks.

[jimshoes]

Mine too

:mad:

[Bitwit1234]

6. And what I can't understand is this---

you don't hear a thing at all about this type of thing Republicans do on any of the media stations. Except maybe on Keith or Rachel's shows.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. It was an elaborate ruse.

Dodd gets credit for introducing a bill so he looks good.
The Repugs block it.
But no one talks about the huge amounts of banking and insurance money that Dodd gets.
A short time travel to........ June 2008:

"Chris Dodd, the US senator who introduced the mortgage bailout bill this week, has received approximately $70,000 in campaign contributions from Bank of America in the last year-and-a-half, Tim Carney reports in the Washington Examiner.* The mortgage bill would allow banks such as Bank of America and mortgage lenders like Countrywide, which BofA is in the process of acquiring, to push their worst performing loans onto government agencies. It is such a give away to mortgage laden banks that it is being mocked by Republican staffers as "the Bank of America bill on steroids."

Dodd, of course, chairs the senate's banking committee. It may seem obvious that the banking committee chairman would receive lots of money from one of the nation's largest banks. But it wasn't always so. Richard Shelby, who headed the banking committee while Republicans controlled the senate, received only $7,000 from Bank of America employees during his four-year chairmanship. When the going was good, no one needed to own a senator."
http://dealbreaker.com/2008/06/chris-dodd-the-senator-from-ba.php
and

Top 5 contributors by group: ( Keep in mind this is only the required reportable amount)

Industry.............................Total

Securities & Investment....... $3,830,874
Lawyers/Law Firms............ $1,762,002
Insurance ...................... $1,249,006
Real Estate...................... $1,164,231
Commercial Banks .......... $769,244

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=n00000581

[marketcrazy1]

8. it sure is worth "mentioning" !!!

It’s worth mentioning that the Democrats — folding to pressure from the banks — were themselves responsible for delaying those reforms, which were initially proposed to go into effect much earlier this year.

[Vinnie From Indy]

11. I'll agree with that!

The whole credit card reform act of last year was a sham! It was a carefully worked out deal between Congress and the credit card industry.

[Bobbie Jo]

9. K&R

Step in the right direction.

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. Dodd needs to be told that the industry didn't TRY - they DID!

It is absolutely mind boggling that in this economy that Congress would allow the credit card companies to get away with this shit. The rates being charged now to MILLIONS of Americans already struggling would make a mafia loanshark jealous.

[Laelth]

12. Dodd's posturing.

He knows this bill won't pass. He's trying to cover his backside for having given away the farm when this bill was originally passed.

He's not fooling me. I know whose pocket he's in.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Bring back the usury laws

partly because those cold-blooded vampires in the credit card industry are so infected by greed that they don't realize that high interest rates make it MORE likely that the user will default.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

14. K&R