Monday, March 08, 2004
Bushogarchy for state's rights, except when the states are protecting you
Let's play follow the money....
It's another Bush Con—they put $5.00 in your front pocket with a tax cut, then take $10 out of your back pocket by finding new ways to screw you over. Worse, you only get the tax cut once, but you get screwed for the rest of your life.
In the late 1990s, North Carolina saw an upsurge in cases where banks tricked elderly homeowners into refinancing with high interest-rate loans carrying hidden fees. In response, the state enacted a law against such "predatory-lending" tactics.
Now the law is being undermined by an obscure federal agency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a branch of the Treasury Department (news - web sites) that regulates banks, ruled this winter that 14 state predatory-lending laws - and a host of other consumer-protection laws across the USA - do not apply to banks chartered by the federal government.
The new federal regulations put consumers at risk because of:
Fewer legal rights. Under the OCC's rules, federal banks would be exempted from state false advertising statutes, do-not-call registries, predatory-lending laws and other consumer protections.
Fewer enforcement resources. The OCC's primary mission is to ensure a healthy banking industry. As a result, it cannot match the thousands of investigators working in state agencies to look out for consumer interests. The federal agency has 1,700 examiners who spend most of their time ensuring banks meet solvency and accounting requirements, and a 40-person consumer complaint center in Houston that is open just 28 hours a week.
States already are seeing the negative impact of Washington's new reach.
(via USA Today)
It's another Bush Con—they put $5.00 in your front pocket with a tax cut, then take $10 out of your back pocket by finding new ways to screw you over. Worse, you only get the tax cut once, but you get screwed for the rest of your life.
