Banksters Beaten on Debit Card Swipes

Every time you shop with a debit card, a bankster gets a cut of the transaction, and that cut has gotten bigger and bigger over the years.  It has gotten so bad that the corner store in my neighborhood will not take a debit card for purchases under ten dollars.  I asked the owner why, and he explained that the swipe fees are so high that he doesn’t even break even for smaller purchases.  Dodd-Frank set limits on the swipe fees banksters can charge.  Banksters mounted a major lobbying campaign to delay the implementation, but in the Senate yesterday, they lost.  Most Republicans and too many Democrats sided with the Banksters.  I have the names.

The Senate on Wednesday refused to delay new rules that would sharply cut fees that banks charge retailers to process debit-card transactions.

The rules were a major part of the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law passed last year. The Senate vote was one of the strongest challenges to the new law.

While 54 senators voted for the delay, the measure failed to garner the 60 votes required for it to pass under Senate rules. Forty-five senators, including Washington Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, voted against the delay.

Still, the vote represented a remarkable, come-from-behind lobbying campaign by banks to recover from the anti-Wall Street drubbing they took during debate over financial regulation. The debit-card bill, sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., passed last year by a 2-to-1 ratio after little debate and no hearings.

The Wednesday vote, after a vigorous floor debate, was a victory for retailers who have complained that banks and the companies that control the largest debit-card networks, Visa and MasterCard, have raised fees consistently on debit-card transactions even as the market has grown rapidly and technology costs have declined… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Seattle Times>

I’m under no allusion that merchants will pass the savings down, but I’d rather see the money go to that little storekeeper who will spend it here that to some bankster’s multi-million dollar bonus.

Here are the Senators who sold-out the American people and sided with the banksters. (Democrats in bold)

Akaka (D-HI) Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Carper (D-DE) Coats (R-IN) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Gillibrand (D-NY)

Hagan (D-NC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (D-SD) Johnson (R-WI) Kirk (R-IL) Kyl (R-AZ) Lee (R-UT) Manchin (D-WV) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Mikulski (D-MD) Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Schumer (D-NY) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Wicker (R-MS)

Inserted from <US Senate>

Everyone voted, so all the rest voted with the people.

You might consider giving your senators a call to tell them what you think of their votes, good or bad.