Not much press has been given to the "other" huge bill, passed by the Socialist 111th Pelosi/Reid congress. It is often called the FinReg bill, short for "financial regulatory" bill; also called Dodd/Frank. It became effective in July of 2010 and was passed as a "consumer protection" bill. You can bet that if the Dems say one thing, they really mean something else. That is the way they roll. And it is no different with this new fin/reg bill.
For starters, these socialist clowns put a cap on what retailers like WalMart and Home Depot can be charged for credit card transactions -- only, before the bill was actually signed into law, it had been amended to cap debit card transactions only, not credit card sales. As a result, Home Depot, for example, will "save" $35 million nationwide because of the cap. Because of this loss of income to the banks, those institutions will begin to charge for the use of their debit cards. Bank of America implemented a $5.00 monthly surcharge beginning last weekend.
In a review of this portion of the bill, a Washington Examiner article blamed this legislative screw up on Big Retail, rather than Big Banking.
Nonsense. Understand that there is no credit balance on a debit card, hence, no way for the banks to gouge their customers using the debit card. As a consequence Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, two individuals controlled by the banking lobby, rescinded the restrictions on the credit card industry (also known as . . . . . . "banks" ) and allowed for the money hogs to charge their cash customers. If my bank does that, I will no longer buy anything with a debit card. (My wife and I have not carried credit cards for seven or eight years).
My point, here, is that the Obama/Dodd/Frank bill has done nothing that translates into any kind of savings to the middle class. Instead, the regulations in the Fin/Reg bill are money costers to Big Business (whether retailers or banks) and we all know that, in the end, the customer (mostly middle class blue collar folks) will get stuck with the upcharges.
The Fin/Reg bill was passed under the pretense that it would keep another banking crisis as per 2008 "from ever happening again," so says the economic genius, Barack Obama. Observers admit that jobs will be lost but such is a reasonable trade off "for protections against another recession." If we are about to enter a second recession, those words will seem more than empty.
My question is this: why in the world are the Dems pushing for regulations they know will lose jobs while we are in the midst of a historic recession? Raising taxes on the jobs creators, also called "the rich" by the Obama Administration, is, also, a jobs killer. Do we need to close loopholes and increase revenues? Yes, of course, but not in the middle of a recession. ObamaCare is a huge money coster. He crammed that down our collective throat in the middle of a stinking recession. And those in his camp wonder why the recession is as protracted as it is.
Just thought I'd mention that you do have a choice to switch to a local Credit Union and avoid these fees altogether. When the banks charge the retailers, the retailers pass the cost on to you the consumer. One way or the other you will pay those fees. At least now you have a choice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice. I do business with Bank of the West. As things stand, it will forgo additional fees.
ReplyDeleteMy point in the post remains the same. Obama and company have done nothing that will trickle down to the common man, in a good way, and, in the case of the fin/reg bill, has prolonged the recession.
What you say in your comment is what I am saying in the post, that corporations do not pay taxes and fees, the working class does.
Sooooo, the two of us agrees.