Working for the American People

Today there was a vote on the floor of the Senate to basically cap interest rates on credit cards, the details of which can be found here. Well, in the end the amendment to the wide ranging credit card reform bill, was defeated by a sizable margin, 33-60. This is very disheartening, on several grounds. One, it shows clearly that banks seem to have a strangle hold on Congress, if not on our government at large. Why would all of these Senators, Democrats and Republicans both (although the Democrats voted 33-22 in favor to the Republicans 0-38), vote against against this amendment, when it would seemingly give the American people a direct benefit, and safeguard against the whims of the banking industry?

Whatever reason one could find to justify voting against this legislation, particularly if you're a Democrat, who are supposedly fighting against big business and corporations, there is no justification for doing so, either politically or practically. This legislation, would have benefited the American people and that is it, and would have shown the country that Congress truly is on the side of the average citizen and not the big banks or big business in any way. This would have appealed to populists on both side of the isle, and of course with liberal Democrats who always favor sticking it to the man. But for some reason there are those who still fear those in power of large sums of money, and these people simply are missing the point, they are in Congress to fight for the American people, particularly those hard hit by this recession, not corporate fat cats.

Lastly, there are some who say that they are doing this in order to give the big bill a better shot at passing the Senate when it comes to a vote. While it is important to get legislation passed and not be hyper partisan to the point where it halts progress; however, Democrats can not compromise to the point where they make good bills bad, where the make what could be really effective bills into paper tigers. It is apparent given the Republican party's current state of mind, that it will be difficult to get a good deal of their support on almost any legislation backed by Democrats. Given this, it makes no sense to compromise the party's morals for the sake of bipartisanship, when in fact in the end there is little chance that it will receive Republican support.

In the end these Senators, the 22 Democrats and 38 Republicans, must realize what they were elected for, and stand up for the American people, especially those who can't stand up for themselves, those who are most affected by the seemingly ever increasing credit card rates. Those who have little wealth, are forced to borrow, and buy on credit, whether its for food, payments on their homes, or apartments, or to pay for the never ending amount of bills that need to payed. This is who this legislation affects, and due to the selfish acts of these 60 politicians, Democrats, who I fully support on many other issues, they will suffer and be victims of the system again and again.