AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Republican senators on Wednesday blocked an effort to debate a bill that would prevent credit card companies from raising interest rates, fees and finance charges before new regulations come into effect in February.
Earlier this year, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who heads the Senate Banking Committee, wrote and passed through the Senate the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which requires credit card issuers to give customers advance notice before hiking rates and fees.
Since then, credit card companies have taken advantage of the delay to raise interest rates to unprecedented levels, as reported by The Washington Post and other media outlets last summer. A Rasmussen poll released on Tuesday stated that over 50% of respondents said their credit card interest rates have been raised in the past six months.
In response to the interest rate hikes, Dodd also authored a bill called the Credit Card Rate Freeze Act. The proposed laws would freeze credit card rates where they are now until the new law comes into effect and require credit card companies to review all interest hikes going back to the beginning of 2009 to see if customers were overcharged. Dodd, on Wednesday afternoon, asked for unanimous consent to move the bill forward.
"On behalf of several senators on this side of the aisle, I object," said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS). And that was the end of it.
The Senate schedule is packed with nominations, health care and appropriations bills, leaving no time for a prolonged floor fight over credit cards. The only way Democrats could pass the bill in time for the holidays would be with the support of several GOP Senators, and although all but five voted for the CARD Act, none of them seem to want to help out consumers before this holiday season.
"We worked long and hard to enact the safeguards included in the Credit CARD Act," said Dodd. "And no sooner had it been signed into law, but credit card companies were looking for ways to get around the protections this Congress and the American people demanded. This bill would end those abuses and further protect customers today."
Rep, Betsy Markey (D-CO) who worked on the House version of the bill, said "I’m extremely disappointed that the financial health of millions of American taxpayers has been completely brushed aside by a handful of Wall Street banking interests in the US Senate."
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Comments
Good thing I don't use credit cards, or at least carry a balance on them, and don't plan to - ever.
You ROck Greg-o
This was an awesome article.
Excellent article. IMO, the GOP has now become the Party of 'NO'.. the negative ones who are not into caring for WE THE PEOPLE. Let's continue to remind them that THEY WORK FOR WE THE PEOPLE !!
You know, a smart political party would use things like this, blocking health care reform, and Sen. Tom Coburn's shameful hold on vet's benefits as campaign themes in 2010; seems like being the party that always stands against the average American's best interests would be a pretty potent reason to vote them out.
Okay, I know, we're talking about the Democrats here, so we'll just have to hope voters are paying attention. Right -- and I'd also like to win the lottery.
This is a prime example of how the GOP operates. Give me one good reason why they would block this bill? One good reason. Clearly special interest groups and lobbyists run the show. These are the things that voters should look at and ask themselves how are these Republicans looking out for OUR best interest? If they're not willing to protect consumers from credit card companies hiking interest rates unfairly and unjustly, how can we expect/trust them to make good decisions when it comes to a health care reform. Clearly someone needs to make the correlation between Republicans and old money. Republicans and special interests. They wouldn't prevent companies from jacking up interest rates but we can trust them to tell us that Obama's health care bill is garbage? Hmmm.
This is a prime example of how the GOP operates. Give me one good reason why they would block this bill? One good reason. Clearly special interest groups and lobbyists run the show. These are the things that voters should look at and ask themselves how are these Republicans looking out for OUR best interest? If they're not willing to protect consumers from credit card companies hiking interest rates unfairly and unjustly, how can we expect/trust them to make good decisions when it comes to a health care reform. Clearly someone needs to make the correlation between Republicans and old money. Republicans and special interests. They wouldn't prevent companies from jacking up interest rates but we can trust them to tell us that Obama's health care bill is garbage? Hmmm.
Derrick...great post.
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