Joe Baca vs. Luis Gutiérrez: The Race To Charge You Interest
And you thought that adjustable rate mortgage or that 23% interest charge on your credit card was bad…
How would you like to pay 391% interest on that $200 pay day loan?
Well, thanks to the Patron Saint of failed immigration reform Luis Gutiérrez, unless you are in the military (they got their own bill, capped interest at 36%), you may already be a winner:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The payday loan industry, threatened by Congress with extinction, has deployed well-connected lobbyists and hefty sums of campaign cash to key lawmakers to save itself.
The strategy has paid off.
Now a top Democrat who once tried to ban the practice is instead pushing to regulate it — a result, he says, of the industry’s lobbying clout.
The lawmaker, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., says his bill does have crucial protections for borrowers and represents the best deal he can manage in the face of the industry’s aggressive lobbying. Consumer groups are condemning the bill as a loophole-riddled gift to the industry.
And BTW…
The largest political action committee (PAC) donor to Gutierrez in his 2008 reelection was the PAC for Kansas-based QC Holdings, one of the nation’s largest payday lenders with 585 branches in 24 states.
The PAC contributed more than $10,000 to Gutierrez; meanwhile, the firm’s chairman and vice chairman, Don Early and Mary Lou Early, contributed $7,800 to the congressman’s reelection campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and Federal Election Commission data. (VIA the Hill)
Meanwhile our ex-leader Joe Baca…
has legislation would allow rollovers, higher fees for online banks, and would pre-empt state laws banning payday loans.
Of course this post gives us a chance to revist one of our favorite topics…
Themocracy
File it also under “sell outs.” Oh, wait, that’s all of them!