Posted on 06/30/2009 4:03:30 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to create a new agency to police the fine print on consumer products like credit cards and mortgages and determine what fees, penalties and interest rates are fair.
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency would be in charge of regulating those products in the same way other government agencies regulate the safety of drugs, food and toys.
Obama said Americans are demanding it.
"Those ridiculous contracts with pages of fine print that no one can figure out—those things will be a thing of the past," the president said in a statement accompanying the 152-page draft bill. "And enforcement will be the rule, not the exception."
The CFPA is part of Obama's broader plan to increase oversight of the financial industry and eliminate regulatory gaps believed to have contributed to the economic crisis.
The agency would be dedicated to protecting consumers when buying mortgages, using credit cards and taking out high-rate "payday loans." It also would monitor terms set on savings, checking and debit card accounts, including overdraft charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Say, what about simplifying our convoluted tax code and reducing hard working Americans’ tax burdens as a positive step toward consumer financial health.
I nominate Bubbles the chimp.
He must mean the IRS code, except I didn't sign a contract to comply with around 70,000 pages of statism.
We will soon have 100% employment. Everyone will work for a new government agency.
Perhaps they can actually read bills before congress votes on them.
Micromanaging the economy.
The curse of the Carter Administration returns.
Time for a partition of the country. Those of you who admire what Resident (Pres_ent) Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., or Barry Soetero, or Mr Michelle Robinson, or Sock-Puppet, supposedly the son of an out-of-control teenager and a Kenyan exchange student, is doing, step over to your left, and run your rump country, what the heck, just put ACORN on the ground and let them be your enforcers.
The rest of us will just go back to running America as it always was, and always should be, known hereafter as “Red State Country” or “Flyover Country”. Its participation is not necessary to how you run your country over there. We would do just fine without all your new rules.
Bingo! Fairtax.org has to seize this perfect opportunity to say we’ll buy off on this when the tax code is simplified down to a one page document without fine print as well. And what better way to save the government money, which Obama is allegedly trying to do, than by abolishing the American KGB, aka the IRs?
Maybe he can appoint me chocolate czar(ina).
I shudder to think of what they will tax next to be able to pay for those "new government agencies".
The Economic Idiot called Obama couldn’t care less that no one, not even IRS agents, can understand the inane 60K page joke of a tax code. He’s all over credit card offers...something we can refuse, but will never think of simplifying the tax code...something we can’t refuse.
POLITBURO, USA! More stooges appointed to smooth the way for Ømerica’s dictator. God help us.
But the voter had better beware.
He’s going to appoint some Soviet-style Czar to read contracts for idiots that could refuse them if they wanted to yet no Democrats reads the Cap and Trade, much less the fine print contained within this rapacious tax before they vote on it in the house?
Ridiculous.
reads=read. My bad.
The net effect of this new regulatory regime will be less credit usage and consumer spending. The current recession has substantially lowered spending and credit already. This regulatory regime will cause it to sink much lower even if recovery occurs. The losses in unsecured credit debt are enough for the industry to reform itself. These regulations will have many perverse effects. Banks will try to eliminate the grace period and begin charging interest immediately. Consumers will resist this change so I see good credit customers using another form of payment.
The real intent of this new regulatory regime is industry control. The Democrats are trying to effectively nationalize another industry.
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