Politicians and the Credit Industry

Yesterday, I wrote about how the credit industry is desperately trying to clean up their image because of pressure from Congress. Congress has really been putting the pressure on the credit industry to change their anti-consumer practices of charging outrageous fees and higher interest rates.

Since this makes perfect sense, why does it take an act of Congress (no pun intended) to get this accomplished? Why wouldn’t any self-proclaimed Congressional leader see the unethical nature of these credit practices and just pass legislation to fix them?

Well, it is because they are politicians. Through the years, the big hitters in the credit industry have lined the coffers of many a politician’s re-election campaign. Thus, you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.

They have heavily contributed to the Republican side of the aisle while not really showing much love to the Democrats. As a result, the Republicans allowed this to get completely out of control. Now, the credit industry probably wishes they would have shown a little more love to the Democrats now that they are in power.

So, the Democrats really don’t have a back to scratch so they are going after the credit industry…..or are they? The current legislation by Democratic Senators Levin and McCaskill is excellent legislation that would prohibit these anti-consumer practices.

It is so good that it brings up a red flag for me and begs the question, “Is this piece of legislation a campaign contribution negotiation technique?” In other words, if the credit industry will start scratching my back, we will make sure that this legislation is a little more credit industry friendly.

Sorry to be so critical of our leaders in Congress. However, they are politicians and politics is politics. This will be interesting to track.

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