Brett Guthrie, Geoff Davis vote to protect thieving credit card companies

Next year, when Brett Guthrie and Geoff Davis tell voters in the Second and the Fourth what courageous protectors of Kentucky's working families they are, remember that when they had the chance to really protect those families, Guthrie and Davis stood with the financial industry predators who bribed them.

Down with Tyranny has the score:

Yesterday (Wednesday) the House overwhelmingly passed-- though not without some tough fights-- Carolyn Maloney's H.R. 3639, a much needed amendment to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. The idea was to establish an earlier effective date for the consumer protections inherent in the original bill. The credit card companies were none too keen to see that pass; let me come back to that in a moment.

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... the final passage was 331-92, almost half the Republicans finally abandoning their corrupt, bankster-lovin' leadership to join every Democrat but Herseth Sandlin in passing a stinging rebuke to the bad-faith credit card companies who have been ripping off American consumers at an increased pace. Leading the charge against consumers were a dozen Republicans who have taken some of the biggest and most outrageously blatant thinly veiled bribes from the banking sector:

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Geoff Davis (R-KY- $1,724,689)

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The credit card companies, (Rep. Barney Frank) railed on the House floor, "have retained the right unilaterally and retroactively to raise the interest rate on what you already owe them. It is the single unfairest economic transaction I can think of that doesn't involve a pistol. The fact is, they decide that they can make more money that way. And we are told they have to deal with risk management. What's the risk management on debt already incurred on the part of someone who has always made the payments? This isn't risk management, it is hostage taking."

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The provisions below are what paid-off shills like Eric Cantor, Mike Castle, Judy Biggert and Paul Ryan tried to prevent from taking immediate effect today:

• Prohibits arbitrary interest rate increases and universal default on existing balances;

• Prohibits issuers from charging over-limit fees unless the cardholder elects to allow the issuer to complete over-limit transactions, and also limits over-limit fees on electing cardholders;

• Requires payments in excess of the minimum to be applied first to the credit card balance with the highest rate of interest;

• Prohibits issuers from setting early morning deadlines for credit card payments;

• Prohibits interest charges on debt paid on time (double-cycle billing ban);

• Requires issuers extending credit to young consumers under the age of 21 to obtain an application that contains: the signature of a parent, guardian, or other individual 21 years or older who will take responsibility for the debt; or proof that the applicant has an independent means of repaying any credit extended;

• Requires penalty fees to be reasonable and proportional to the omission or violation;

• Requires that creditors periodically review all interest rate increases since January 2009 and reduce rates when a review indicates that a reduction is warranted.

Kentucky representatives Yarmuth, Whitfield and Rogers voted in favor of the bill to shut down credit card company abuses. Chandler did not vote.