Joe Biden Disease - It's a Pandemic!

Joe Biden, our Vice President, is clinically brain dead. Since his ascension to power, however, this condition has spread rapidly across the country. Case in point, the new credit card law waiting on Barack M.F. Obama's desk this morning.

Here is the NY Times report on the same.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”

As they thin their ranks of risky cardholders to deal with an economic downturn, major banks including American Express, Citigroup, Bank of America and a long list of others have already begun to raise interest rates, and some have set their sights on consumers who pay their bills on time. The legislation scheduled for a Senate vote on Tuesday does not cap interest rates, so banks can continue to lift them, albeit at a slower pace and with greater disclosure.

Once again, it's not the idiot who runs up a big credit card bill he or she cannot afford who is at fault. Nooooo! It's the credit card companies! See a trend here? This has been a major theme in American life for decades, a lie propagated by liberals and adopted, albeit grudgingly and/or unconsciously, by the rest of us.

But wait! This article needs an outrageous quote from some monkey dick who purports to be an expert. And here it is:

“There will be one-size-fits-all pricing, and as a result, you’ll see the industry will be more egalitarian in terms of its revenue base,” said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card business.

People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had to pay an annual fee even as they collect points for air travel and other perks.

“Despite all the terrible things that have been said, you’re making out like a bandit,” he said. “That’s a third of credit card customers, 50 million people who have gotten a great deal.”

This is what I love the most. Follow the letter and spirit of the contract? You're a freeloader! You're getting a great deal! Too good, in fact. So in a way, this mess is sort of your fault.

Mr. Robertson, you can suck it. There is no free lunch. I pay every month on time and never pay interest. The credit card companies would not extend credit to me if there was nothing in it for them. But wait...THERE IS! They get 1-3% of the purchase price.

Go wipe the drool off of your chin, Mr. Robertson.

And buried toward the bottom of the article, where you will always find the truth if our dying newspaper industry needs to kill some space, is a bit of common sense:

Robert Hammer, an industry consultant, said the legislation might have the broad effect of encouraging card issuers to become ever more reliant on fees from marginal customers as well as creditworthy cardholders — “deadbeats” in industry parlance, because they generate scant fee revenue.

“They aren’t charities. They have shareholders to report to,” he said, referring to banks and credit card companies. “Whatever is left in the model to work from, they will start to maneuver.”

And there you have it. Contrary to the Obama business model, these companies are not charities. If they can't make money, they go out of business. Very simple concept.

So why is it half the country doesn't get it?