It is often hard to find nice things to say about the Dems in the Senate. But, being the open-minded and fair individual that I am I do feel that it’s time we give some credit where credit is due. After all, we are fairly quick to slap down the liberals when they screw up, and they do so quite often. It follows then that, in the spirit of good sport, we applaud them when they do something well.
So here’s a special round of applause to Tricky Dicky Durbin, (D) - Illinois for having “onions” the size of Jupiter. It takes some major testicular fortitude to, in the same election cycle, be the sole cause of a major cost increase on most Americans, then blame someone else for the screw up. I’m talking of course of the now infamous “Durbin Amendment” that was dropped into the regulatory mess known as “Dodd-Frank” right before the bill was shoved down our throats.
So a little history here for those of you who don’t understand the major accomplishment of Tricky Dicky. A little over a year ago the Dems controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House. Drunk with power, they passed a whole bunch of regulatory chickens that have just begun coming home to roost. One major big chicken was the Dodd-Frank bill, passed under the guise of regulations needed to prevent another major financial crisis. What it is actually? No one can say because most of the text defines new government regulatory organizations that will then make up their own regulations. So, if you’ve wondered about that whole “uncertainty of business” thing, look no further than Dodd-Frank.
The fact that this bill does nothing to address the real issues at the heart of the melt down, namely Fannie May and Freddie Mac, is yet more evidence of the “huevos grandes” of the left. Another might be the fact that both Dodd and Frank took tons of cash from Fannie and Freddie whilst the company was going under, but again, let’s focus on the applause at hand. We’ll address the idiocy that is Dodd-Frank at perhaps another time.
As was the case with most everything passed though the Reid - Pelosi Congress, it was done in haste, without any real reading, and ignoring the input of saner minds that might have prevented the stupidity. Sorry folks, you can’t even come close to blaming this one on Republicans. As the inevitable, fully partisan passage of this monstrosity approached, Dems started lobbing in related, and unrelated, pet amendments to ensure they could pay back the lobbyists that had paid so well to get the Dems elected. One of those lobs and nods was made by none other than Tricky Dicky Durbin, and his buddies were so excited that they even named the amendment after him.
The Durbin amendment limits fees that banks can charge a company to 12 cents per transaction. This is compared to the 20 or so cents that banks were charging. Banks charged this small fee per transaction to pay for the technology to make certain that transactions are nearly always accurate, as secure as they can be, and move as quickly as we, the consumers, are accustomed. If you make five transactions in a store per month, banks would collect about $1.00. If you think about your transactions in a month, gas, food, entertainment, clothing, home items, cleaning supplies, pet supplies, doctors, dentists, etc. banks might be collecting a whole $10.00 each month from each consumer.
When Tricky Dicky did his thing, banks had a few choices. They could cut costs, cut services, or create new revenue streams. Knowing that current regulations would not allow them to cut service, they decided to cut costs and find other revenue sources. As you are now aware, Bank of America has done both. Recently the company announced layoffs, which of course will impact tax revenues, increase unemployment, and negatively impact the economy by reducing consumer spending. Chalk one up for Dicky. They have also announced a new $5.00 per month fee for their customers on debit cards, in effect addressing the other half of the loss of revenue created by Dicky.
Dicky’s response? He’s called for consumers to leave Bank of America. They have no right to make a profit, I guess. This is where Dicky’s onions get galaxy sized. By eliminating the revenue stream for the banks, Dicky forced them to either fold (unacceptable) or find other sources of funding. Business being in the business of staying in business, they opted to stay in business, and they beat Dicky at his little game. Now Dicky thinks you should leave the banks that are charging fees and go to other banks, many of whom are announcing their plans for charging fees. But it’s not Dicky’s fault. Enter applause here.
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