John Tierney Leads Against Abusive Credit Cards
We all know that when we get a credit card, we’re going to have to pay for the purchases we make, and if we wait a while, we’re going to end up paying interest on the balance. That’s only fair. What’s not fair are interest rates that soar above 20 percent, and membership fees hidden in the fine print, placing credit card holders in a state of permanent economic diminishment, shoveling money into credit card companies’ accounts for the mere privilege of paying off the interest on a credit card balance. That’s predatory lending. If you want to get biblical, you can call it usury.
U.S. Representative John Tierney is leading the way toward the abolishment of abusive credit card terms. Just before the winter holiday recess, he introduced H.R. 4300, the Restoring America’s Commitment to Consumers Act. The legislation would limit credit card interest rates to 16 percent, and would restrict membership and late fees as well.
Tierney calls upon ancient tradition in his campaign to abolish usury. His congressional web site notes that, “laws limiting this kind of usurious behavior have been in place since the Babylonian Empire and were present in the United States on the state level until 1978 when a Supreme Court ruling effectively eliminated states’ usury laws. That decision called on Congress to act and address the issue with new legislation, but Congress has not acted to do so and rates have continued to climb unchecked.”
Americans don’t expect credit for free, but we ought to be able to expect that companies that offer credit not to take advantage of the vulnerability of working Americans experiencing lean times. Financial firms, however, aren’t willing to give up their monumental profits without a fight. They’ve hired lobbyists like Tim Rupli to supply big money to members of Congress who are willing to withhold support from bills like H.R. 4300, while providing representatives like John Tierney with no support at all.
[...] economy into the ground and then got hundreds of billions in the bailout. He’s introduced legislation to limit credit card interest rates to 16 percent, and regulate abusive credit card fees [...]