Give me a W, an E, a D, G, E! What's that spell? WEDGE!
When Freepers sing Krugman's praises, and the king of righty bloggers comes down against the every Republican in the Senate there's something going on.
Oh, and the fact that Credit Card Debt (and that payday/title loan stuff) constitute nothing less than 21st-Century sharecropping make reforming consumer credit the right thing to do. It's not just an electorial winner, it's consistent with your principles to boot. This wedge has your name written all over it, Democrats. Do you want to pick up seats in 2006 or not?
Choice quotes below the jump.
Choice Freepers:
I usually disagree with Krugman, and sometimes find him disingenuous and tendentious, but I agree with each and every word he wrote in this Op Ed piece...
I am a Republican, and if I were in the Senate, I would have been the sole Pubbie to vote no on cloture with respect to this turkey.
And there's this:
The bait and switches credit companies play with consumers, like with little clauses that if they are late in paying anything to anybody, then the APR on their credit card goes up from 7% to 27% even if they are not late in paying the credit card company, and simply legion and amazing. American Express plays the game of sending your bill quite close to when the grace period ends to pay it without incuring an interest charge. Sometimes the period is so short, I have to send the check in the mail rather than pay via Quicken, which has a four business day delay. And it goes on and on.
And there's this too:
What if the debtor refuses to work as a slave? Will you amend the constitution to bring back debtor prisons?
And Sage Renyolds weighs in:
I'm deeply skeptical of the bankruptcy bill in front of Congress now, and this report on credit-card industry practices goes a long way toward explaining why. Credit extended to people who can't handle it, absurd hidden fees, high interest rates, etc.: There's a lot of scamming here. The argument, of course, is that people who sign up for credit card accounts ought to know what they're getting into. But shouldn't the companies that extend credit to people who obviously can't handle it be held to the same standard?
I was pointing out this kind of stuff back when InstaPundit was young -- and it certainly hasn't gotten any better. Is it any coincidence that the companies involved are big campaign contributors? The people behind this aren't all Republicans by any means, but this is a Republican Congress, and if it passes they'll get -- and deserve -- the blame for something that's a pure giveaway to corporate interests.
Once again, the Republican coalition isn't as diverse as the Democratic, but it is a coalition that can be broken. Let's drive this wedge home.
It occurs to me that with a modest effort similar to what Matt and Bob and I did with There Is No Crisis we might actually get this on the national radar. It should be designed to appeal to conservatives who are tired of corporate fat cats getting sweetheart deals from their cronies in congress. This will work. The mantle of Economic Populism is waiting for someone to pick it up