Mar. 15, 2007 - 19:31 MDT

EXCUSES

Cokie and Steven V. Roberts of United Feature Syndicate have a column in today's The Rocky Mountain News discussing political aspects of our human scene here in the U.S.A. Quoted in full here:

DEMS KEEPING AN EYE OUT FOR US

"With 51 votes in the Senate, Democrats fall far short of the numbers they need to break a filibuster (60) or override a veto (67), so their legislative record this session is likely to be meager. But they are already their mark in another way -- oversight.

"As the majority party in both houses, Democrats control committee agendas, hearing schedules and witness lists. Perhaps their most important power can be summed up in one word: subpoena."

"An excellent example of this power occurred last week when the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, headed by Carl Levin of Michigan, summoned three executives of credit card companies to explain some of their more outrageous and abusive practises. Even before the hearing, two of the companies announced changes in those practices and issued apologies to their customes."

"The companies claim they are acting voluntarily, but that's absurd. As Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, told the Web site Market Watch: "Credit-card issuers are announcing unilateral changes in their practices . . . . . . because they are now fearful that Congress will legislate in this area and they don't want that to happen."

"The lobbying dollars are all on the side of industry," says Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, an expert on bankruptcy law. "That's why they get to make the rules." No longer. Democrats have their own campaign contributors to pay off -- from trial lawyers to trade unions -- but when it comes to correcting business malpractice, they are tougher and more independent than the GOP."

"Two caveats. Credit card companies certainly have a right to use "risk-based pricing." But they don't have a right to entrap people with confusing and deceptive practices that bury them under mountains of debt."

"More important, there is a huge role here for personal responsibility. In the end no one is forced to accept or use a credit card. A recent caller to NPR named Kathleen, made a good point, saying she had cut up her credit cards and returned to paying her bills "the way my dad used to do it" -- with cash."

"But not everyone has Kathleen's self-discipline or role model. Many comsumers need a measure of protection from predatory credit card companies."

"Congressional oversight provides a good start, but if the banking industry refuses to reform itself, stronger regulation should be the next step."

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Makes me think of the time when I was buying a motorcycle. I happened to be working some overtime and went in to pay off my bike. But what I owed to date was not enough, I had to pay the interest as if I kept the loan to term. OBGYN had no protocol to deal with premature payoffs.

Does rankle a bit, these companies that tout themselves as servers to the public, but are actually after what every con man in the world is after, our cash and negotiables.

When it comes to financial transactions I guess most of us are totatlly at sea when trying to comprehend the fast talk and weird terminology, exceptions and contortions of what we are getting ourselves into.

And when these outfits are backed up to a wall, the best they can do is come up with real weird lawyers and fancy EXCUSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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