Credit Card "Consumers' Rights" Bill Does Nothing To Help The Consumers

The Senate just passed an empty law they call a "reform" of the credit card industry. The Democrats will undoubtedly proclaim across the land, I'm guessing by tomorrow in e-mail solicitations, that they are working hard to help the people of this country, protect them from the predators on Wall Street. But the Democrats will be lying when they make those claims, as will President Obama who undoubtedly will use this in his re-election campaign.

The media will also lie about it, trying to fool the public into believing this law does something to help the people. But the only thing it really does is to further defraud the public.

There are a few nonsensical provisions that will have no effect whatsoever. They can't use a dragnet clause (to say a default on anything else, like a mortgage, is a default on their credit card so they can raise the interest). Big deal. Somebody's house is in foreclosure, their credit card is not the biggest thing on their mind. They give people a little bit longer before the late fees hit, but they leave the late fees in there -- which, combined with other ridiculous punitive fees raised $20 Billion for these Loansharks last year alone.

But here's the worst part of all. A new provision says that anyone under 21 must either prove they are able to pay the credit card or have their parents be co-signers. The Democrats claim that this is to "protect" young people from getting credit cards if they're unable to pay them. But the truth is that this is just a sneaky, deceptive way to fool adults to take on responsibility for their children's obligations -- 18 through 21 -- when right now, there is no such obligation. An 18 year old defaults on a credit card, tough luck Citibank, try to collect. Under the new law, Citibank will go grab Mom and Dad's paycheck. Even for a 20-year-old who lives on their own, and has a full-time job. Citibank will now go take the money out of Mom and Dad's checking account. Thanks to the Democrats, who undoubtedly will claim this is another big benefit for working Americans.

Last week, someone introduced an amendment to cap interest on credit cards at 15%. It was shot down. The Democrats have the majority in the Senate, but they also take the most bribes from the credit card industry. So they said no way. The federal government loans money to the credit card industry at 1/2 % interest per year. The credit card industry turns around and loans that money to American citizens, but charge 25% interest per year, and they rake in about a 24% profit per year. Talk about obscene loansharking practices.

This week, somebody introduced an amendment to "limit" interest to 36%, and that was shot down too. No, the Democrats cried, we must let the credit card companies charge 50% interest if they want, because they pay us so much money in bribes.

What we should do is just pick a date, then stop paying and stop using our credit cards. Tell Congress to get up off their fat, corrupt asses and pass a real reform of credit cards to limit interest to 10%, eliminate late and other fees, and make the new interest rate retroactive to January 1 of this year.

What do you call a government that lies to the citizens, deceives them, pretends to be a democracy but actually sells their votes to the richest corporations in the world, lets businesses take the jobs to other countries, watch their own people be thrown out of work and forced to borrow money just to survive, then lets the loansharks charge 25% or more for a simple loan? A corrupt, deceitful, fraudulent, useless, traitorous dictatorship.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090519/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_credit_cards