18 Senators Have Questions to Answer
18 Senators Have Questions to Answer
In 1991, 18 Senators who still serve today voted for a bill by Sen. Al D’Amato (R-NY) to limit the interest rate credit card companies can charge to 14 percent (the measure was consequently stripped out of the final bill). Those same 18 Senators voted a few weeks ago against a bill by Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) to limit the interest rate credit card companies can charge to 30 percent.
Why would 18 Senators, including co-sponsors of the original measure, vote for a tougher pro-consumer measure in 1991, and then vote against a weaker measure in 2005? Could it be that the more than $2 million these Senators took from the credit card/banking industry in the interim made them change their mind? Or, was there another reason? I’d say the public deserves an answer.
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Just another reason to ignore campaign finance reform,right?
March 28th, 2005 at 6:02 pmYou should list out the 18…
March 28th, 2005 at 6:21 pmDavid- Do not let up on this or bankruptcy. I am a Democrat but these votes are shameful. You have been criticized by some for gong after this but that is, frankly, because the truth hurts.
March 28th, 2005 at 7:40 pmWho says money doesn’t talk? Our Congress has been bought and paid for by corporations to support their views and screw the public. Those in Congress who can’t be bought dont last.
March 28th, 2005 at 8:08 pmYou really should list those names so that we can see whether they are Democratic or Republican hypocrits, and also so that we can contact them for an explanation…
March 28th, 2005 at 8:37 pmWell, here are the “Democrats” who voted against it. Those include such stellar “liberals” as John Kerry, Barack Obama (?), Dick Durbin (?), Patrick Leahy (?)…Maria Cantwell is no liberal, so her vote is not surprising.
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
March 28th, 2005 at 9:02 pmBiden (D-DE), Nay
Bingaman (D-NM), Nay
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay
Carper (D-DE), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Nay
Kerry (D-MA), Nay
Kohl (D-WI), Nay
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay
Leahy (D-VT), Nay
Lincoln (D-AR), Nay
Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Nelson (D-NE), Nay
Obama (D-IL), Nay
Reed (D-RI), Nay
Reid (D-NV), Nay
Sarbanes (D-MD), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Nay
Please list the full 18 names. I know one of them is my Senator Nelson, from Florida. I called and gave his staffers what for. Everyone should do the same with their Senators. We have to get these Dino’s out of office. (Democrta’s In Name Only) Let them know that they will lose your support if they don’t tow the party line. These politicians are supposed to repersent us, not the credit card companies. Please get off your butts and make the calls. We have to do this. You know why the American Taliban has gotten so far even though they actually repersent a small fraction of our population? Because they are loud. Really loud. The only way to fix this is to get LOUD too. Right Wing Republicans are dangerous, but not as dangerous as a Democrat that won’t stand up.
March 28th, 2005 at 9:12 pm[…] credit card industry and then voted against consumers with the bankrupty bill. He’s still at it. Good for him. If the people elected to represent the public won’t do it, we’ll […]
March 29th, 2005 at 12:00 amMy understanding was that some of them voted against the cap because it would have overridden state laws with lower caps. Of course, I’m sure the campaign contributions persuaded some of them to vote against the amendment too…
March 29th, 2005 at 12:29 amCould it be that they thought 30 percent was too high? I would vote for reform myself if I were a Senator, but I’d vote against a rate that high. I agree with you that we need more info, though.
March 29th, 2005 at 6:30 amYou left out some details on this issue. First, credit card companies take their cut of a bankrupt person’s pay before even the child support judicial orders. Second, creditors are now foreclosing on the homes of troups in iraq. The neocons are deliberately killing the middle class.
March 29th, 2005 at 7:59 amKaren wrote:
> My understanding was that some of them
> voted against the cap because it would have
> overridden state laws with lower caps.
I’d heard that rationalization too. However, here is the actual ammendment:
SA 31. Mr. DAYTON proposed an amendment to the bill S. 256, to amend title 11 of the United States Code, and for other purposes; as follows:
(a) Cap on Interest Chargeable.–A creditor who extends credit to any consumer shall not impose a rate of interest in excess of an annual rate of 30 percent with respect to the credit extended.
(b) Preemption of State Law.–The provisions governing rates of interest under subsection (a) shall preempt all State usury laws.
(c) Exemption to Preemption.–If a State imposes a limit on the rate of interest chargeable to an extension of credit that is less than the limit imposed under subsection (a), that State law shall not be preempted and shall remain in full force and effect in that State.
As you can see, states that have stricter usury laws would be able to enforce their lower rates. So that excuse ain’t gonna fly. Most of the Democratic senators that voted against this ammendment, voted in favor of a number of other consumer-friendly ammendments, so I think their must be a reason. Maybe they felt 30% was too high (it is) and didn’t want to go on record supporting a ridiculous cap like that.
March 29th, 2005 at 10:57 amHow come when the auto industry, was going bankrupt. The tax payers bailed them out? Now these same companies will take your car, house, tax returns. If you file for bankruptcy? Under these new laws passed by this Republican congress.
March 29th, 2005 at 10:58 am30% is a meaningless cap for the vast majority of Americans. Why vote for a cap that does nothing except allow the right-wing to claim they’ve addressed the matter?
March 29th, 2005 at 11:02 amI count 19 (not 18) Senators that voted for the 1991 D’Amato ammendment and against the 2005 Dayton Ammendment:
1. Baucus (D-MT)
March 29th, 2005 at 11:21 am2. Biden (D-DE)
3. Burns (R-MT)
4. Chafee (R-RI)
5. Cochran (R-MS)
6. Craig (R-ID)
7. Grassley (R-IA)
8. Kerry (D-MA)
9. Kohl (D-WI)
10. Leahy (D-VT)
11. Lott (R-MS)
12. McCain (R-AZ)
13. Murkowski (R-AK)
14. Reid (D-NV)
15. Sarbanes (D-MD)
16. Shelby (R-AL was D until 1994)
17. Specter (R-PA)
18. Stevens (R-AK)
19. Warner (R-VA)
> As you can see, states that
> have stricter usury laws would
> be able to enforce their lower
> rates. So that excuse ain’t
> gonna fly. (…) Maybe they felt
> 30% was too high (it is) and
> didn’t want to go on record
> supporting a ridiculous cap
> like that.
Thank for posting the actual language - I hadn’t read it. I agree that maybe some of them felt that writing the 30% in to law was tantamount to endorsing such a usurious rate, and they didn’t want to do that. SK had a good point too - why give them “cover” to say they addressed the issue… But if either of those were the reason, they should have said so, and not presented some bogus, easily disproved reason. It only adds to the confusion that some Americans have about just what the heck the Democrats stand for.
March 29th, 2005 at 12:03 pmI think it’s pretty clear where the loyalies of these politicians lie. And it’s not with their voters.
I know I am proably going to take heat for this (like I care?) but guess what? Ralph Nader was right. Republicans AND Democrats only care about money. They don’t give shit about you, at all… unless you represent a small interest with lots of money to toss around. They only care where you put your X once every two, four and six years.
And of course they are trying to eliminate the middle class. Rack up debt and tank the dollar is all part of the grand plan to make it so much easier for the to 10% to scoop up what the former middle class can no longer afford. Do any of you happen to know how much money the rich made after black tuesday in 1929? Huge tracts of land were made dirt cheap after farmers could no longer pay their mortgages and were booted off their land (I know, my great grandparents lost everythhing, farm, equipment, land, everything becuase they missed a single tractor payment.) and those few, the top 10% made a killing scooping up land and businesses at rock bottom prices. It’s happening again. Time to wake up, yet?
March 29th, 2005 at 12:41 pmSorry if I’m violating any sort of decorum guidelines for the post, but fuck Dems, too. I’m not sure what else has to happen to convince so-called progressives to start voting Green, right on down the party line. Kerry sold us out; “Traitor” Joe Biden is Banking’s bitch; Hell, even Harry Reid, the “Minority Leader,” is a sellout. No Obama, too? Let’s waste no more time on these collaborators, these Januses.
March 29th, 2005 at 1:54 pmMark Dayton is one of the heirs of the Dayton department store fortune. The Dayton’s own Target which has an interest rate between 18 - 21.6% on its credit card. Maybe Mark should start there.
March 29th, 2005 at 11:05 pmSomehow, I overlooked Pete Domenici (R-NM). He voted for the 1991 D’Amato ammendment and against the 2005 Dayton ammendment. That brings the total to 20 senators.
The TPM Bankruptcy Extra caught my Domenici omission, but appear to have left out a couple of their own. Namely, Chafee (R-RI) and Murkowski (R-AK). We definitely don’t want to leave anyone off our Christmas list!
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February 16th, 2006 at 8:22 am[…] Middle and low-income families are under attack from predatory lenders who offer deceptive terms, charge unfair fees, and trap the unwary or the unlucky. According to Fannie Mae, about half of the subprime borrowers could qualify for regular interest rates, but didn’t get them. That means there are hundreds of thousands of people paying much more than they should for their home loans. […]
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