A note from Senator Sanders, re Credit Cards

[question everything]

Dear :



Thank you for responding to the recent Bernie Buzz which requested your personal experiences with credit card companies. In the last several days, my office has received nearly 1,000 responses from Vermont and all across the country. Many of these emails are very powerful statements that demonstrate the extraordinary greed and callousness of some of the largest financial institutions in our country. In order to raise the consciousness of my Senate colleagues on this issue I have begun reading some of these emails on the floor of the Senate without mentioning the names of the writers.



In my view, when a credit card company charges 25 or 30 percent interest rates, they are not engaged in the business of "making credit available" to their customers. They are involved in extortion and loan-sharking. This is especially true at a time when the taxpayers of this country have provided many hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street, and when the Federal Reserve is providing them with near zero percent interest loans.



The good news is that President Obama and Congress are beginning to address the issue of credit card rip-offs. The bad news is that, at this point, they are not prepared to go as far as they should in this area. While moving forward on credit card "disclosure" and "transparency" is very important, what is more important is that we pass a national usury law and place a cap on interest rates. The legislation I introduced, which now has five Senate co-sponsors, would emulate the regulations that credit unions operate under - a 15 percent maximum interest rate (which could rise to 18 percent under exceptional circumstances).



Thank you again for your communication and for the information you provided. Despite the enormous wealth and power of the financial institutions, we can defeat them on this issue if enough people are prepared to stand up and fight back.

Sincerely,


BERNARD SANDERS
United States Senator



Here are the comments. I read some of them and really felt angry, frustrated and sad at the same time.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/qa/creditcards.cfm


BERNARD SANDERS
United States Senator

[Skittles]

1. good job, Bernie

:thumbsup:

[susanna]

2. Well said, Bernie! n/t

[omega minimo]

3. .