Democrats are at it again. This time they are determined to help the predatory loan industry by allowing payday lenders sidestep basic consumer protection laws.
In late July, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced the ingeniously titled “Protecting Consumers’ Access to Credit Act of 2017.” The legislation would allow payday lenders to ignore state interest rate caps on consumer loans as long as they partnered with a national bank.
Although it has been generally overlooked amid the GOP’s stumbling attempt to repeal Obamacare and its aggressive plan to slash taxes for Wall Street, Warner’s little bill has a much better chance of making it into law than the Republican Party’s marquee efforts. Companion legislation is scheduled for a vote in the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, where the bill has the backing of archconservative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Reps. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), liberal Democrats with a history of sympathy for the financial industry. Warner’s Senate version is co-sponsored by tea party darling Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).
Warner’s bill has drawn opposition from consumer groups including Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending and the Consumer Federation of America, along with civil rights organizations including the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In September, the groups wrote a joint letter to every member of Congress urging them to oppose the legislation, saying it “wipes away the strongest available tool against predatory lending practices” and will “open the floodgates to a wide range of predatory actors to make loans at 300% annual interest or higher.”
The Democratic Party is so mobbed up with the financial industry that it will always be easy pickings for Nationalist Republicans.
