House Passes A Stinging Rebuke Of Crooked Credit Card Banksters-- Almost Half The Republicans Cross Aisle, Leave Boehner & Cantor Whistling Dixie

Yesterday the House overwhelmingly passed-- though not without some tough fights-- Carolyn Maloney's H.R. 3639, a much needed amendment to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. The idea was to establish an earlier effective date for the consumer protections inherent in the original bill. The credit card companies were none too keen to see that pass; let me come back to that in a moment. First, yesterday's vote. It started with some procedural votes in the late morning wherein the GOP and some of the Boehner Boys on the other side of the aisle wanted to make a point to the banksters about whose side they're on. Every single Republican voted against allowing the bill to come up for debate. They were joined by 6 Boehner Boys: Brian Baird (D-WA), Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN), Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ) and Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS).

Late in the afternoon, the Republicans tried to kill the bill with a motion to recommit. Two Boehner Boys (Charlie Menacon and Michael McMahon) and a Boehner Girl (credit card company shill Stephanie Herseth Sandlin) joined all but 6 Republicans. They failed and the final passage was 331-92, almost half the Republicans finally abandoning their corrupt, bankster-lovin' leadership to join every Democrat but Herseth Sandlin in passing a stinging rebuke to the bad-faith credit card companies who have been ripping off American consumers at an increased pace. Leading the charge against consumers were a dozen Republicans who have taken some of the biggest and most outrageously blatant thinly veiled bribes from the banking sector:

Spencer Bachus (R-AL- $4,028,424)
Eric Cantor (R-VA- $3,623,035)
John Boehner (R-OH- $3,333,409)
Pete Sessions (R-TX- $2,891,140)
Ed Royce (R-CA- $2,794,049)
Mike Castle (R-DE- $2,592,612)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX- $2,392,300)
Geoff Davis (R-KY- $1,724,689)
Paul Ryan (R-WI- $1,703,845)
Jim Gerlach (R-PA- $1,673,752)
Judy Biggert (R-IL- $1,673,717)
Ron Paul (R-TX- $1,669,327)

OK, as promised above, here's what this is all about. When Congress passed legislation last April to put an end to abusive practices by credit card companies against consumers, the banksters begged for more time to implement the changes smoothly. Although progressives warned that the banksters had already proven themselves completely untrustworthy, Congress gave them a deadline of February 2010 before they would have to stop charging retroactive interest rates, excessive fees and penalties and all the kinds of skullduggery they have been using to commit legal highway robbery against hapless customers. Breaking their promises to Congress, many of these slimy banksters then started taking advantage of the implementation reprieve by significantly increasing rates on cardholders and systematically ripping off consumers.

Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, aware of the record of malfeasance of many of these bad-faith players, warned them when the bill originally passed that “if the banks, the credit card issuers, use the time between now and the effective date in a way that is abusive of customers, if they use the time not simply to get ready for the change which they say they need but if they use the interim period to raise rates on people retroactively and to do other things that are abusive, to me that will be a very strong argument for speeding up the date."

And they did. So yesterday he made good on his warning. The credit card companies, he railed on the House floor, "have retained the right unilaterally and retroactively to raise the interest rate on what you already owe them. It is the single unfairest economic transaction I can think of that doesn't involve a pistol. The fact is, they decide that they can make more money that way. And we are told they have to deal with risk management. What's the risk management on debt already incurred on the part of someone who has always made the payments? This isn't risk management, it is hostage taking."

Alan Grayson backed up the decision to end the grace period that the credit card companies used to further rip off consumers: "The credit card companies brought this on themselves. Instead of preparing to end all of their tricks, they used the time we gave them to accelerate their abusive practices.”

Another Blue America favorite, Michigan freshman Gary Peters-- also a member of the Financial Services Committee-- was equally outspoken about how untrustworthy the banksters have been in this matter.

“Credit Card companies were engaged in egregious practices, hiding fees and gouging families. Now, despite promising they wouldn’t, they’re gouging families again by trying to sneak rate hikes in before the law changes. Credit Card companies were given a grace period with the promise that if they violated their end of the deal, the grace period would be closed. Their deceit led to today’s action in the House.”

The provisions below are what paid-off shills like Eric Cantor, Mike Castle, Judy Biggert and Paul Ryan tried to prevent from taking immediate effect today:

• Prohibits arbitrary interest rate increases and universal default on existing balances;

• Prohibits issuers from charging over-limit fees unless the cardholder elects to allow the issuer to complete over-limit transactions, and also limits over-limit fees on electing cardholders;

• Requires payments in excess of the minimum to be applied first to the credit card balance with the highest rate of interest;

• Prohibits issuers from setting early morning deadlines for credit card payments;

• Prohibits interest charges on debt paid on time (double-cycle billing ban);

• Requires issuers extending credit to young consumers under the age of 21 to obtain an application that contains: the signature of a parent, guardian, or other individual 21 years or older who will take responsibility for the debt; or proof that the applicant has an independent means of repaying any credit extended;

• Requires penalty fees to be reasonable and proportional to the omission or violation;

• Requires that creditors periodically review all interest rate increases since January 2009 and reduce rates when a review indicates that a reduction is warranted.