Vermont Congressperson Bernie Sanders Agrees with Wall Street Change about Credit Card Interest Rate Charges...

Congressperson Bernie Sanders said the following while appearing on the Rachel Maddow show (Feb 03, 2009)

Please note, quote is taken from Senator Bernie Sanders Questions Card Card Interest Rates. Please link to the quote in this article, or DailyPUMA link provided above, transcriptions take a lot of time to do and nobody is paying for it to be done.

Well Rachel, this is the problem with this issue, is, it is so big, that nobody can get their hands on it. It is not just 700 billion dollars, as you know the fed has lent out 2.5 trillion dollars. The president is probably going to ask for more top money.

The fed, we think, is going to lend out trillions more. So what we need to do, among many other things, is we need to figure out a way that we do more than get back to where we were a couple of years ago, by making the institutions stable.

If the taxpayers of this country are putting such a huge amount of money into financial institutions, we need financial institutions that are gonna be beholden to the needs of ordinary americans and not go back to where we were... (as in a couple years ago.)

For example, Just one example. Right now, we're bailing out banks which are charging american taxpayers 25 or 30 percent interest rates on their credit cards. Does that make sense to anybody?

We're giving banks money and they're not telling us how their spending it. We're trying to loosen up credit in america, they're not doing it.

Sanders went on to talk about actually prosecuting the richest people on the planet who may have performed misdeeds that have led to the current situation, and wondered if the justice department was up to the task prosecuting those who are culpable.

So when does the consumer get their interest free Credit Card Debt Paydown Program?

Legitimate Bills versus Outrageous Credit Card Interest Rate Charges that are Wrecking the Economy and Causing Unnecessary Despair.

Since Wall Street called a timeout last September, and with the Super Bowl right around the corner, I was wondering who will call a real time out for the american consumer? A real time out involves the suspension of interest charges on all unsecured debt, also known as Credit Card Debt.

I see Barack Obama madly spinning his wheels to try and inflate the american economy with a bicycle pump, and I find it embarrassing. Meanwhile, the made in China toy you purchased a couple of years ago is still on your credit card racking up obscene interest charges.

The toy that should have been made in the United States by an american, but instead was made in China, has now cost you MORE because of ongoing interest charges than if the toy had been made in the United States and you purchased it with cash! The net result is you bought a "cheaper" toy for more money than if it had been made in the United States, and no american labor was involved in the making the toy you bought, so that is one less wage earner in the United States to buy the products that your company makes. What doesn't go around, doesn't come around.

Being a great leader involves recognizing when your own actions are trivial compared to the will and power of the people. All Barack Obama has to do is waive the interest charges on all credit card debt for anyone trying to pay down their debts. Tie it in to a consumer debt reduction plan so that people don't just mindlessly run up even more debt, but actually get rewarded for paying down their debt, and you will see the economy come back to life all by itself.

Barack Obama talks about having spoken to people all over the country while running for president, yet you still think the men in suits have all the answers. The same people that gave themselves 18 billion dollars in bonuses from the bailout money you already handed them may not be the best source for solving the problem they helped create.

Solving the Home Owner Crisis Requires more than a Stimulus Check.

A better way to stimulate the economy is to eliminate interest rate charges for a while. An economic stimulus package in which the entire amount of the stimulus check goes towards higher gasoline prices is silly, no? If I were a bank and I was worried about millions of foreclosures, I would value keeping the homeowner making a monthly payment over simply foreclosing on them.

But for some inexplicable reason, the banks seem reluctant to waive interest payments. The obvious reason is that if they waive interest payments for some, they will have to do this for everybody. The reverse corollary to this reasoning is, if the banks don't waive interest payments, the debtors who lose their homes just become more of a drain on society, and it will be up to others to prop them up.

How about this idea. Waive all interest payments on home mortgages UNTIL a homeowner is no longer upside down on the house, plus 20% equity. So if a homeowner owes more on a house than the house is worth, they get to stay in the home as long a they make interest free payments. Once they have built up 20% equity in the home, they can either put the home up for sale, or agree to new terms that now involve interest.

Assuming banks have behaved ethically in how they have managed their homeowners loans, the above solution is a no brainer that helps everybody get through the current crunch. If it isn't done sooner rather than later, than we can assume the fix is in to imprison the american citizen for some ulterior motive.