I watched the YouTube video linked below and thought to myself: "These are the people who are going to toss the Democrats out in 2010. And maybe Obama in 2012."
The video is by a woman who’s trying to launch a "Debtors Revolt" because Bank of America jacked-up her interest rate even though she'd been paying her bill on time.
http://www.youtube.com/...
In case you haven't heard, Congress passed the Credit Card bill this past May but it doesn’t take full effect until February 2010. In the meantime, all the banks have been rushing to raise rates, fees, and minimum payments before the law takes effect.
So basically Congress said to the credit card companies: "Okay, a lot of the really bad stuff you’ve been doing to people is going to be illegal eight months from now. So we’re giving you eight months to jack-up rates and find other ways to increase fees so you can maintain all your profits once these new laws go into effect."
[new slogan? Owning Congress: Priceless.]
(more)
Needless to say, the woman who made the video (her name is Ann) is more than a bit upset that BoA suddenly raised her interest rate sky-high even though she’d been paying her bill on time. What’s really making her boiling-mad, though, is that the US government just bailed-out the banks. Her rather awesome rant against the "banking elite" (her words) is as follows :
"You are evil, thieving bastards. You have reaped ungodly profits in your behemoth casino scams, then lost, only to turn around and usurp the wealth of this great nation by the outright rape and pillage of middle class Americans whose sweat and toil built it. The biggest rip-off in the history of the world is padding your bonus checks with the federal government as your co-conspirators. Every last one of you should be rotting in prison."
Ann says she’s decided to make a stand based on principle. After Bank of America refused to lower the interest rate or negotiate a "pay-off" amount, she decided to stop making payments. She made the video (221,000 views on YouTube so far in 6 days) and is asking other people to join her. Now some of you may watch her video and immediately say:
· She shouldn't have charged all that crap!!!
· She's stupid for not paying!! She’s going to ruin her credit rating!!!
· She should just stop using the card, then she won’t have to pay the higher rate!!
· It’s deadbeats like her that drive up our rates!!
That really isn’t the point. Like she says, it’s a matter of principle. Like many Americans, she may not be the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to managing her finances, but she’s way smart enough to realize that there’s a big double-standard in this Country right now:
· Big banks & financial firms: If you’re one of the big financial institutions that have been deemed "Too Big To Fail", you can belly-up to the Fed window and borrow money at .25%. If you’re a big corporation or real-estate trust that can’t pay-back the money you borrowed to overpay for what you bought during the boom, you just negotiate with your lenders and they’ll forgive your payments for 12 months or more. If you’re a car dealer or auto manufacturer, the Federal government will subsidize the purchase of your merchandise.
· Regular people (and small businesses and small banks, too): You’re screwed. You have to pay more money even if you’ve been following the rules the whole time. Yes, powerless peons, somebody has to pay for the mistakes and greedy, irresponsible & reckless actions of the big financial firms and it sure as heck isn’t going to be them. They have convinced the Bush and Obama administrations that they are "Too Big Too Fail". So you have to be the one to Fail. Nobody cares about you so shut up and try to survive the best you can.
I know there's a debate about whether the bail-out was the right thing to do and whether the economic benefit outweighs the massive debt burden. Regardless of your opinion on that issue, however, doesn’t it strike you as enormously unfair, stupid and counter-productive to let the banks raise interest rates on people who have been paying their bills? I mean, c’mon, could the banks be any more vicious and politically tone-deaf? And this while they’ve been racking-up huge profits over the past few months! And talking about paying themselves bonuses! I mean: HOLY CRAP!!!
What’s more, the dingbat economists who failed to see the economic tsunami coming are now hoping that the American consumer will start spending again and "lead us to economic recovery". How in the heck is the American consumer going to do that since many will either have no credit or will be too broke paying jacked-up credit card bills to buy anything else?! Nice job, credit card companies -- you'll keep us in a recession for another 10 years.
And who’s going to be blamed if the economy doesn’t recover? Based on history, it’s the party in power.
I have to admit I wasn’t paying attention when Congress was "crafting" the new Credit Card law last April. Stupid me, I just assumed that the Democrats controlled Congress and they’d actually get something passed that helped people. I didn’t even realize the law wasn’t taking effect for eight months. From what I gather, they didn’t have the votes and compromised with the Republicans and the industry on a "delayed implementation". And, of course, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal to put a 15% cap on interest rates got shot to smithereens during the process: His proposed amendment got 33 votes. A "bipartisan group" of 60 Senators were opposed.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
As I started looking into this Credit Card law over the past few days, I found this completely absurd quote from Sen. Charles Schumer talking about how sad it is that people are now getting screwed in advance of the new credit card law going into effect:
"This is what many of us feared about a law that didn't take effect right away," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told The Washington Post. "It was never going to take this long for the credit card companies to get ready for the new reforms. Instead, issuers are using the delay in the effective date to wring more dollars out of their customers. It is against the spirit of the law, and it is just plain wrong."
Full article here: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/...
What??!! "Many of us??!! Why didn’t those "many of us" raise more of a ruckus? It’s kind of astounding (at least to me) that Senator Schumer is admitting that a lot of Democrats voted for a law they knew sucked.
And, pray tell, what are the Democrats going to do about it now? Now that they are aware that the banks have been doing things that are, in Sen. Schumer’s words, "against the spirit of the law" and "just plain wrong".
Apparently nothing.
These are the morons that are going to be on TV next November saying, "I guess people just blamed us for their economic situation."
If I was a Democratic strategist (the non-clueless, non-out-of-touch, non-overpaid kind), I’d be telling Chris Dodd to hold hearings really quick and investigate what the banks have been doing to people. If it’s "just plain wrong" to be screwing people who haven’t done anything wrong, shouldn’t the Democrats be at least pretending to do something about it?
Or are they too afraid that the banks will be mad at them?
Whatever the story is, they’d better get out there quick and pin this mess on the Republicans because the average American doesn’t know about niceties involved in legislative "sausage-making". When you can’t buy your kids new sneakers, you’re mad. Voters have one reaction when they’re mad and it’s against the guys who are supposed to be in charge, the party in power. It’s: Throw the bums out.
And seriously, does anyone really think this particular group of Americans – the ones who owe money to credit card companies – are going to trust the Democrats with health care reform when the Democrats are standing by watching them be legally-scalped by the credit card companies??? While Wall Street makes billions?