by Zach Carter, TMC MediaWire Blogger  

The banking lobby still holds enough sway inside the Beltway to torpedo sensible consumer protection rules, even after releasing a flood of predatory mortgages that kicked off the current economic crisis. On issues ranging from payday loans to subprime mortgages, the banking industry continues to successfully defend itself against new regulations that would protect the consumer. As if that weren't outrage enough, the finance lobby has also joined other corporate interest groups to fund misinformation campaigns that smear unions and block wage growth.  

There's more...

Originally posted at centrist-blog The Motley Moose

For all the hell we give Republicans for being the party working actively against the "common" man, I think now is as good a time as any to remind ourselves that taking advantage of poor people is definitely a bi-partisan past time here in the United States.

Payday loans, for those of you unfamiliar with the practice, are small, very short-term loans with extremely high interest rates (sometimes in the range of 400-800%) that are effectively advances on a borrower's next paycheck. They're typically obtained when a borrower goes to a check-cashing outlet or an online equivalent, pays a fee, and then writes a postdated check, or signs over the title to a vehicle, that the company agrees not to cash or take a lien against until the customer's payday.

Thank God we've got Congressmen willing to stand up for working Americans against these sorts of shenanigans, right?

... right?

There's more...

Over the past few months I have been paying an increasing amount of attention to the predatory lending issue, specifically because it has played a large role in the campaign I am running in Oregon. But it is not one that is limited to Oregon, by any means. In fact, predatory lenders prey on hard-working Americans throughout the country, including members of the armed services, as Thomas Watkins reports for the AP.

Thousands of U.S. troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt they are considered security risks, according to an Associated Press review of military records.

The number of troops held back has climbed dramatically in the past few years. And while they appear to represent a very small percentage of all U.S. military personnel, the increase is occurring at a time when the armed forces are stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[...]

Data supplied to the AP by the Navy, Marines and Air Force show that the number of clearances revoked for financial reasons rose every year between 2002 and 2005, climbing ninefold from 284 at the start of the period to 2,654 last year. Partial numbers from this year suggest the trend continues.

[...]

The figures gathered by the AP represent just a piece of problem, because the Army -- which employs an additional 500,000 people and accounts for the vast majority of the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan -- rejected repeated requests over the past month to supply its data, saying such information is confidential.

Repbulicans throughout the country go to great lengths to insinuate that Democrats don't care about the troops, with the party's congressional leaders even holding sham votes that contrive to prove their point. Yet the bulk of the evidence available -- whether it is Repbulicans' inability to provide suitable body armor to troops, the administration's inability to figure out an end to the violence in Iraq that is claiming an increasing number of American lives or the Republican Congress' inability to keep our fighting men and women safe from predatory lenders here at home -- shows that it is the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party, that places a low priority on supporting American troops.

And when voters hear that Republicans are defending lenders who charge 500 percent annual interest or more on any consumer, let alone members of the armed services, make no mistake that they will not quickly run to defend their Republican member of Congress. This is yet another of many winning issues for the Democrats, one that could help tip races on the brink today.

There's more...

John Edwards of North Carolina hit the hustings in Iowa yesterday on behalf of a longshot US House candidate, and as the Associated Press reports, the former Senator hammered away at a very important issue.

John Edwards, a White House hopeful, focused on the problem of predatory lenders in his first swing through Iowa since a statewide poll gave his potential presidential campaign a boost.

"What we're doing is focusing on what can be done to stop predatory lenders and payday lenders from preying on our most vulnerable families," said Edwards, who called for new regulations for an industry in which annual interest rates for payday loans can soar to 300 percent to 400 percent.

For the past couple of months, I have become intimitely acquainted with the effort to begin regulating payday loan stores and predatory lenders in general. As a part of the state House campaign that I am managing in Oregon (Mike Caudle for State Rep), I have been working at both the local and the district level to reign in these companies, which in my state charge up to a 521 percent annual rate on short-term loans.

Just to provide some perspective, a survey by the State of Oregon (.pdf, page 27) showed that 30 percent of payday loan consumers explain they take out the loan just to pay for groceries. Another 10 percent take out the loans to pay off other loans.

Not only is it good policy to reign in predatory lenders, it is good politics, too. There has been polling conducted on this issue, and while I can't get into the details of it, suffice it to say that the vast majority of voters -- and even the vast majority of Republican voters -- are in favor of capping the interest rates that predatory lenders charge.

But a surprising number of Republicans in Oregon, and no doubt across the country, are opposed to placing regulations on predatory lenders on grounds that free enterprise should be left free.

So when Democrats like John Edwards and Mike Caudle come out in favor of new regulations and Republican politicians announce their opposition on grounds of free enterprise, the Dems have a great wedge issue to drive in the middle of the GOP coalition. Speaking from experience on the ground, even faith voters -- especially faith voters -- are willing to defect from the Republicans over this issue.

So I really hope Senator Edwards continues to hammer away on this issue throughout his (possible) bid for the Democratic nomination. I certainly know that my campaign will for the next four months through election day.

There's more...