The upset applecart that is the American economy right now is the number one concern of voters. No surprise – if the economy is in the tank, it affects us all.
President Obama inherited a mess, for sure. And he recognizes that our health insurance/health care reform crisis is one of the biggest issues that he must correct to fix the economy. He’s been working hard on that, and with any luck, we’ll have some improvement in this year’s legislative session (as long as no one falls for the latest insurance industry ploy to threaten outrageous premium increases if we don’t force everyone to buy their products).
But there are other pieces of our economic puzzle. And virtually nothing has been done of any substance on things like consumer credit. There are no doubt people working furiously behind the scenes on new regulations to control the greedy financial industry that brought us the sub-prime mortgage crisis. But we haven’t seen any of that work yet.
Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor and member of the Congressional Oversight Panel, says that one of the only tools we have to insure this never happens again is an independent, consumer protection panel, which will have the power to prohibit such predatory practices as we saw over the past 8 years. There is a “muscular program” waiting to be enacted, she says, but lobbyists of the big banks and financial institutions are opposing it, and they are supported by the regulators who were in control, who let them get away with it in the first place.
The Federal Reserve, she maintains, had the power to shut down that shameless exploitation of lower- and middle-class consumers, preventing the disaster we face today. But they did nothing.
There is a bill in Congress right now that needs our support. Led by Barney Frank in the House, and Chris Dodd in the Senate, it would create that independent panel to be the watchdog for consumers, with the power to stop predatory lending practices.
Predictably, Republicans, AND BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS, are dragging their feet on this. Surprised? Not if you’ve been watching the Senate Finance Committee.
And then there is the consumer credit crunch. It’s really hard to get a loan right now. We might argue that that’s a good thing. Those same basic principles that destroyed the mortgage market are also at work in the credit card market.
But while mortgage interest rates are quite low right now, credit card interest rates are soaring. Usury laws – do you even know what that means? An unconscionable or exorbitant rate of interest. At one time, we had state prohibitions against usury. But a Supreme Court decision back in 1978 determined that the rates charged for credit cards would be determined by the state where the card issuer (bank) was chartered, not where the consumer lived.
The fallout of this decision was quick and deadly. Since there was no cap on interest rates in certain states, notably South Dakota and Delaware, the credit card issuers, such as Capital One, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank and many others, moved their home base – on paper at least – to states with no cap.
Well, the rest is history. What used to be 7% or 8% interest rose inexorably to 15%, 18% and higher. Oh, they might offer a 0% trial offer, or a nice 4% 6 month rate for transferred balances, but if you ever missed a due date by a day or two, they could, and would, raise your rate… to 20%, or 24%, or even 36%.
What’s more, even if you paid them faithfully, even if you paid more than the minimum, if you missed a payment for some other debt, they could, and would, raise your rate. Doesn’t matter if you felt your other creditor had made a mistake, and you withheld a payment until it was settled. This was all the excuse the card issuer needed to raise your rate.
Talk about a license to print money.
Last year, with significant efforts by Barney Frank again, the Democratic Congress passed a rule that credit card companies had to give 45 days notice on rate increases, not just the 15 that was previously allowed. The new regulations also required them to keep the interest rate on existing balances that was in place when the debt was incurred, and raise them only on new purchases and new cards.
But efforts to change bankruptcy rules were the price we paid. It used to be that unsecured debt, like credit card debt and medical debts, were not protected when the consumer couldn’t pay. Filing bankruptcy could wipe those debts out. Lobbying by bank interests eliminated those exemptions. (Thanks, Joseph Biden – formerly Democratic senator from Delaware. Shame on you. Now that you don’t represent only the people of Delaware who host so many banks with no interest rate caps, now that you're Vice President of us all, we hope you will support the rest of us on future legislation!)
Medical debt was lumped with credit card debt, and you couldn’t just file bankruptcy when you found yourself in a hole.
While we might accept the idea that buying a fur coat and diamonds on your credit card shouldn’t be protected, the overwhelming cases of bankruptcy were related to medical debts – often charged to credit cards.
In May of 2009 Congress had the chance to cap interest rates – Bernie Sanders of Vermont proposed a cap at 15%, but 66 Senators refused. Only 33 signed on. Any of you who are paying 36% on $10,000 of credit card debt should have been crying over that, but it went almost unnoticed.
That 2008 legislation will come into effect in 2010. So what are credit card companies doing in preparation? Trimming overhead costs? Cutting executive salaries and bonuses?
Nah. They’re raising their interest rates, some effective in November, some on December 1st – taking advantage of the holiday season buying spree most Americans engage in every year. They’re going to soak every penny out of us that they can.
Suggesting that people don’t use their cards this Christmas like they usually do has the effect of screwing the retail industry that depends for about half their revenue on this buying season.
Someday, somehow, we have to find a way to return to a sane economy where consumers are not tempted into debt with unrealistic promises and expectations, then screwed into poverty by the very people who made those promises.
The Obama administration has a big challenge. Congress needs all the consumer lobbying we can muster.
JM
Showing posts with label bankruptcy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bankruptcy. Show all posts
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Low Lowdown:
Little Pricks, Big Dicks, and Looking Out for Number One
Remember WAY BACK when wearing a t-shirt or carrying a sign with any sort of anti-George Bush sentiment on it would, at the least, get you barred from being anywhere within TV camera range of any Bush event, or, at the worst, get you arrested. Wow, how times have changed…and in this case, not for the better. Look what we’ve come to now!
Every time we see one of these gun-toting cretins displaying their manhood at a Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform…either with or without President Obama in attendance…we can’t help but be reminded of a print advertisement we saw in some British publication a few years back. The ad displayed a high-powered sports car…it doesn’t really matter which one…and the gist of it was as follows: “Little Penis?…Have We Got A Car For You!”.
These guys are nothing more than punks, pure and simple. They carry their guns for all to see in an effort to make up for some of the many things that they lack…like maturity, confidence, basic intelligence, and perhaps most of all, genuine toughness. Imagine thinking that it somehow makes you a big man to brandish a loaded gun at a large, public gathering that includes lots of women, children and old people. How pathetic!
They’re the kind of flaccid specimens who would immediately cry for Mom and reach for their weapons at the first sign of any perceived trouble, and it wouldn’t matter to them whether their imagined adversary was armed or not. They’ll shoot their guns first, and then they’ll shoot their mouth off about their second amendment right to have and bear arms. And it’s a slam-dunk that the smaller the pecker, the bigger the gun will be. The ones carrying the AKs to these gatherings are the most pathetic of them all…miserable excuses for men…miserable excuses for human beings.
Speaking of dicks… how about former Republican House Majority Leader DICK Armey, one of the limpest tools of them all. This is the guy who once said that “…God will never let the earth be destroyed by something called global warming”.
Well, the one-time Texas Congressman, now a disgraced yet unapologetic lobbyist, is at his absurd worst again. Now he’s on record as having issued a typically outrageous, lunatic-right ‘Obama as Nazi’ pronouncement about the Swine Flu. Claiming the administration will use fears of a Swine Flu pandemic to sway politicians who have yet to sign on to the President’s Health Care Reform agenda, Armey said, “In September or October there will be a hyped-up outbreak of the Swine Flu which they’ll say is as bad as the Bubonic Plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for Health Care Reform”.
This is the same DICK Armey who recently had to resign his position as a lobbyist for DLA Piper because of a blatant conflict of interest…and when a raging conservative gets forced out as a lobbyist for drug manufacturers and others with a horse in the Health Care Reform race, you know it had to be blatant! Alas our boy DICK apparently also heads up a conservative advocacy group called, ironically, Freedom Works…the same Freedom Works that was found to have been “encouraging” right-wing activists to “disrupt” Town Hall meetings meant to be forums for discussing Health Care Reform.
“Scare the bed-wetters”. What a guy. What a…DICK!
So let’s step back for a moment and think about who, other than the regular, shameless cast of Republican politicians and health industry mouthpieces, seems to be the most passionately opposed to ANY KIND of meaningful Health Care Reform. First of all, sadly and most predictably, are the loyal legions of Faux News viewers and right-wing radio listeners…the unthinking sheep who unquestioningly devour all the slop that the Sean Hannitys and Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world dish up for them…the kind of people Bill O’Reilly would refer to as “pinheads”, were it not for the fact that they’re his core audience.
It would be great to be able to say that that’s the extent of the dissent, but unfortunately that’s not the case…not even close. There’s another, larger group that, as is their wont, speak and act as individuals but are, collectively, both a significant voice and a sad commentary on our society. These are the type…probably good folks when seen under almost any other light…who, when push comes to shove, are ultimately and selfishly only concerned about themselves. And like the sheep, they've been led to believe, or they truly fear, that Health Care Reform is going to affect their own situations negatively.
We all know some of them…the ones who couldn’t give a tinker’s damn that there are almost fifty million uninsured people in America, as long as they have health insurance for themselves and their families…or the ones who are employed in the health care industry, perhaps selling health insurance. Almost invariably they have their health insurance provided for them and therefore don’t have any idea what it means to face skyrocketing premiums or policy exclusions. Or they’re responsible for their own health insurance but have never had to access their coverage to pay for any kind of catastrophic incident or life-threatening illness that sent their premiums through the roof and ultimately beyond their means.
They can’t fathom premiums so exorbitant that even people with good jobs simply can’t afford them. They have no idea what it feels like to have to self-diagnose…or to be forced to decide whether or not their child is sick enough to justify a trip to the doctor or the emergency room because they know that their deductible hasn’t yet been met and they really can’t afford it. They’ve never had to choose between their own child’s health or buying groceries to feed the family. They’ve never faced bankruptcy because of a mountain of unpaid medical bills that resulted from either a loss of or inadequate coverage.
These are not bad people. They’re our friends and neighbors and, in many cases, our relatives… and sadly, they just don’t understand. They can’t, and unfortunately they never will, unless they are faced themselves with the prospect of the same kind of personal financial disasters that so many American families have already experienced…and what so many more will most assuredly be confronted with until this mess that is our current Health Care System is finally fixed.
That’s why it’s so vitally important that the Democrats don’t give up on meaningful Health Care Reform. And that's why, if they continue to waiver, we have to remind them in no uncertain terms, why we elected them!
SC
Remember WAY BACK when wearing a t-shirt or carrying a sign with any sort of anti-George Bush sentiment on it would, at the least, get you barred from being anywhere within TV camera range of any Bush event, or, at the worst, get you arrested. Wow, how times have changed…and in this case, not for the better. Look what we’ve come to now!
Every time we see one of these gun-toting cretins displaying their manhood at a Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform…either with or without President Obama in attendance…we can’t help but be reminded of a print advertisement we saw in some British publication a few years back. The ad displayed a high-powered sports car…it doesn’t really matter which one…and the gist of it was as follows: “Little Penis?…Have We Got A Car For You!”.
These guys are nothing more than punks, pure and simple. They carry their guns for all to see in an effort to make up for some of the many things that they lack…like maturity, confidence, basic intelligence, and perhaps most of all, genuine toughness. Imagine thinking that it somehow makes you a big man to brandish a loaded gun at a large, public gathering that includes lots of women, children and old people. How pathetic!
They’re the kind of flaccid specimens who would immediately cry for Mom and reach for their weapons at the first sign of any perceived trouble, and it wouldn’t matter to them whether their imagined adversary was armed or not. They’ll shoot their guns first, and then they’ll shoot their mouth off about their second amendment right to have and bear arms. And it’s a slam-dunk that the smaller the pecker, the bigger the gun will be. The ones carrying the AKs to these gatherings are the most pathetic of them all…miserable excuses for men…miserable excuses for human beings.
Speaking of dicks… how about former Republican House Majority Leader DICK Armey, one of the limpest tools of them all. This is the guy who once said that “…God will never let the earth be destroyed by something called global warming”.
Well, the one-time Texas Congressman, now a disgraced yet unapologetic lobbyist, is at his absurd worst again. Now he’s on record as having issued a typically outrageous, lunatic-right ‘Obama as Nazi’ pronouncement about the Swine Flu. Claiming the administration will use fears of a Swine Flu pandemic to sway politicians who have yet to sign on to the President’s Health Care Reform agenda, Armey said, “In September or October there will be a hyped-up outbreak of the Swine Flu which they’ll say is as bad as the Bubonic Plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for Health Care Reform”.
This is the same DICK Armey who recently had to resign his position as a lobbyist for DLA Piper because of a blatant conflict of interest…and when a raging conservative gets forced out as a lobbyist for drug manufacturers and others with a horse in the Health Care Reform race, you know it had to be blatant! Alas our boy DICK apparently also heads up a conservative advocacy group called, ironically, Freedom Works…the same Freedom Works that was found to have been “encouraging” right-wing activists to “disrupt” Town Hall meetings meant to be forums for discussing Health Care Reform.
“Scare the bed-wetters”. What a guy. What a…DICK!
So let’s step back for a moment and think about who, other than the regular, shameless cast of Republican politicians and health industry mouthpieces, seems to be the most passionately opposed to ANY KIND of meaningful Health Care Reform. First of all, sadly and most predictably, are the loyal legions of Faux News viewers and right-wing radio listeners…the unthinking sheep who unquestioningly devour all the slop that the Sean Hannitys and Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world dish up for them…the kind of people Bill O’Reilly would refer to as “pinheads”, were it not for the fact that they’re his core audience.
It would be great to be able to say that that’s the extent of the dissent, but unfortunately that’s not the case…not even close. There’s another, larger group that, as is their wont, speak and act as individuals but are, collectively, both a significant voice and a sad commentary on our society. These are the type…probably good folks when seen under almost any other light…who, when push comes to shove, are ultimately and selfishly only concerned about themselves. And like the sheep, they've been led to believe, or they truly fear, that Health Care Reform is going to affect their own situations negatively.
We all know some of them…the ones who couldn’t give a tinker’s damn that there are almost fifty million uninsured people in America, as long as they have health insurance for themselves and their families…or the ones who are employed in the health care industry, perhaps selling health insurance. Almost invariably they have their health insurance provided for them and therefore don’t have any idea what it means to face skyrocketing premiums or policy exclusions. Or they’re responsible for their own health insurance but have never had to access their coverage to pay for any kind of catastrophic incident or life-threatening illness that sent their premiums through the roof and ultimately beyond their means.
They can’t fathom premiums so exorbitant that even people with good jobs simply can’t afford them. They have no idea what it feels like to have to self-diagnose…or to be forced to decide whether or not their child is sick enough to justify a trip to the doctor or the emergency room because they know that their deductible hasn’t yet been met and they really can’t afford it. They’ve never had to choose between their own child’s health or buying groceries to feed the family. They’ve never faced bankruptcy because of a mountain of unpaid medical bills that resulted from either a loss of or inadequate coverage.
These are not bad people. They’re our friends and neighbors and, in many cases, our relatives… and sadly, they just don’t understand. They can’t, and unfortunately they never will, unless they are faced themselves with the prospect of the same kind of personal financial disasters that so many American families have already experienced…and what so many more will most assuredly be confronted with until this mess that is our current Health Care System is finally fixed.
That’s why it’s so vitally important that the Democrats don’t give up on meaningful Health Care Reform. And that's why, if they continue to waiver, we have to remind them in no uncertain terms, why we elected them!
SC
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