There are certain votes that I take more personally than others. I’ve never really gotten over or forgiven the Democrats who voted for the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (roll call). It comes down to votes that just flat-out screw the little guy. Democrats can differ over some moral questions, but taking the side of banks over people who have hit a rough patch? That’s unconscionable. Today’s vote doesn’t fall quite into the category of the bankruptcy bill, but it comes close. At issue is the fee that banks charge businesses when people use their debit cards to make purchases. Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Bob Corker of Tennessee teamed up to offer an amendment that would postpone the implementation of a new rule that will reduce the swipe fee from 44 cents to 12 cents.
Sen. Tester, who I generally like, claimed that his amendment wasn’t aimed at helping big banks but small ones that operate in his home state. Who can say how genuine his claim is? All that matters is the result. The banks make billions off this fee, and that money comes out of the bottom line of small businesses or results in higher prices for the consumer.
The vote appeared to be more about preventing implementation of elements of the Dodd-Frank Bill than about protecting small banks. Consider this:
The policy fight triggered the biggest K-Street battle of the year and may have helped Tester collect tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from banking interests.
Public fundraising records show Tester collected nearly $60,000 in contributions from credit card companies and other opponents to proposed caps on swipe fees in the 17 days following the introduction of his legislation.
You see how this works? Five years ago, we fought to help Tester win a primary against a Max Baucus-clone. And this is our reward.
You can probably guess which Democrats voted with Tester. Any Democrat who represents a state with credit-card companies or banking headquarters, plus a few random jackasses.
Democrats Voting for Banks
Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Begich (D-AK), Bennet (D-CO), Carper (D-DE, Coons (D-DE)
Corker (R-TN), Gillibrand (D-NY), Hagan (D-NC),
Johnson (D-SD), Manchin (D-WV), McCaskill (D-MO), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Schumer (D-NY),
Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), Warner (D-VA), Webb (D-VA)
Lieberman didn’t vote, probably shortening his time in hell by a few days. I kind of understand in an abstract sense that states like South Dakota and Delaware are basically giant credit-card companies impersonating patches of land with borders, unique flags, and official birds and flowers. But I don’t care. Politicians should serve the people, not the people who employ the people. The banks and credit-card companies have been raping people for too long and it’s about time someone did something about it.
This amendment got 54 votes, but like everything in the Senate, it needed 60 to pass. The banks failed. But they only failed because a bunch of Republicans actually reached a level of shame they couldn’t go beyond and sided with their constituents.
What is with Akaka’s yea vote? I guess the sooner that dude retires the better. Also, Booman, you listed Corker as a Dem (a categorization many on the far right would seem to agree with).
Kay Hagan is an attorney and a banker. No big surprise at her vote. We have until 2014 to find a suitable replacement for her and 2016 for Richard Burr, who uncharacteristically voted for retailers instead of Wall Street.
Yeah, WTF? Did Bank of America’s check not clear to Burr this month? What possible retailer could outbid bankers in fucking North Carolina of all places?
Elefino
You know who the biggest disappointment in that list is? Stabenow! With Coons a close second.
Coons and Gillibrand are both expected. But Stabenow has been a backer of the banks for a while. She was a big pain in the ass when it came to Dodd-Frank from the get-go.
there we have those four lethal cynicisms again, Booman.
One of these days, you’re going to publish a diary titled “Fine. Brendan Skwire was right. He’s still a fucking asshole, but credit where credit is due.”
the whole edifice is rotten. they name streets after our government.
who supported extending the Bush tax cuts?
Not really comparable. There were only about 2 Democrats who actually supported extending Bush’s tax cuts. Everyone else accepted the extension of Bush’s tax cuts as the cost of getting other things they wanted, like the UI extension, DADT repeal, and the START treaty.
Whereas this was a straight vote on the swipe fees, all by itself.
A place where voting for something is not supporting it. And how about Obama? Did he support the extension?
Yes, being literate and having a passing familiarity with the workings of Congress is nice indeed.
If you actually have to ask what Obama’s position on the extension was, I’m not wasting my time with you.
Extending the Bush tax cuts didn’t bother me. As a result of that we got the following:
-Repeal Of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
-Umemployment benefits extended for a year
-9/11 Zadroga health care bill
-Complete overhaul of our food safety laws
-The “New START Treaty” with Russia
None of the above would have happened with a prolonged fight over the Bush tax cuts. If I had to decide between getting the above done, or raising the top marginal income tax rate by a few percent, I’d take the above in a second.
The only item you left off is the increase of our debt by a trillion dollars.
A trillion.
Dollars.
I’m glad it didn’t bother you.
Nope.
Since the tax cuts below $250,000 were a done deal, the debate over the extension actually came down to a few hundred billion.
Oh, and you think you’re going to make anyone feel bad about
-Repeal Of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
-Umemployment benefits extended for a year
-9/11 Zadroga health care bill
-Complete overhaul of our food safety laws
-The “New START Treaty” with Russia
because of a deficit number?
Yeah, good luck with that. Nice priorities.
You know, the deficit wasn’t such a concern from the left until they wanted to use it to point out Republican hypocrisy or incompetence. If by some miracle Obama was able to pass 2 trillion dollar stimulus, the left wouldn’t give 2 squats about the deficit.
That’s a little too simple. The left does not worry about the deficit in a recession, it worries about employment. And to increase employment in a recession someone has to spend more. But in a recession, consumers can’t spend, businesses won’t spend through actual on-the-ground investments. That leaves foreigners through exports or the government to spend. And the US doesn’t export more than it imports. Therefore, if the recession is to end, the government has to spend more than it takes in in revenues.
The left does care about long-term debt and reducing it. The bulk of long-term debt comes from unbudgeted war spending and recovery from wars and preparation for future wars. But the time to deal with the deficit is during prosperity, and the way to deal with it is through taxation, which sucks cash out of the financial markets and reduces the possibility of a bubble. We last saw that policy during the Clinton administration. Al Gore promised not just to end the deficit but to pay down half of the national debt (then $5.6 trillion). This cause Alan Greenspan and Wall Street to politically panic because interest on the national debt is the primary means of transfer of funds from ordinary citizens to the rich.
If Obama passed a $2 trillion stimulus, the left would want it to go into investments – infrastructure, education, health care that lower the cost of doing business in the future. And they would want to allow ordinary people to be able to capture a part of that savings of cost in higher wages from economic prosperity.
It is a rightwing canard that the left is not concerned about deficits. Democratic Presidents have lowered the deficit and Republican Presidents have increased the deficits during the period after World War II. That is because prosperity lowers deficits by increasing revenue. Democrats tend to use the additional revenue to pay down deficits. Republicans during prosperous times expand military spending.
Kirsten Gillibrand kills me. She laid into Obama for that tax deal (which helped me and a couple I know tremendously by the way) and she goes and sides with the banks here. Hmmmmm….
I remember reading a story (NYT maybe?) about Tester that discussed this issue and how Kos publicly threw out Tester for votes like this. I think this bill was mentioned as one upcoming.
It’s an interesting story if you can find it.