Freep Suzanne "Kooky" Kosmas

Hey, We are doing a protest of Suzanne "Kooky" Kosmas regarding the finance reform bill. Contact me if you are interested. It is going to be Tuesday 6/15 at 5:30pm at her Orlando office.

In the course of 18 months, the Obama Administration has undertaken an unprecedented campaign to grow the federal government. Much of the damage has already been done.
Health care has been taken-over; student loans have been nationalized; and the government owns two car companies.
And now, Congress is taking the final steps to change our financial system in ways never before contemplated. There is still time to act!!!!
The House and Senate is preparing go to a conference committee on the Financial Reform bill that will:
— End Privacy on your Financial Transactions: The bill creates the Office of Financial Research, is empowered to collect “any data or information” from any financial organization or federal regulator. Sen. Shelby pointed out, would be the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP), which is empowered to collect a person’s ATM receipts and the addresses of depositors. “The Democrats’ new bureaucracy poses a threat to our privacy,” Shelby said, “Under section 1022 of their bill, the new bureau would collect any information it chooses from businesses and consumers including personal characteristics and financial information.
— Empowers Big Labor to Impede Businesses: Tucked inside the bill is a provision that would give union bosses the power to influence the boardrooms and policies of our nation’s largest companies. The bill denies states the ability to make rules how corporate boards are established and run and hands the power to the federal government through the SEC. Union bosses are expected to use the provision to affect corporate boards.
— Provides Bailouts for Wall Street and Big Banks : The bill allows the Federal Reserve to bailout companies without a vote of Congress for perpetuity.

To make matters worse, Sen. Dick Durbin added a provision on the floor to provide bailouts to British Petroleum and other oil companies, as well as big retailers like Wal-Mart.

The BP Bailout Amendment:
The Durbin amendment is a lobbyist carve-out that provides a bailout for BP and Wal-Mart at consumers’ expense. Companies like BP, Exxon Mobile and Wal-Mart make billions of dollars because they choose to accept debit and credit cards. But like the electricity that runs their gas pumps, and the rent on their buildings the service doesn’t come free. In order to process consumer credit cards, retailers like Wal-Mart pay a fee for each time a credit card is used.
But now lobbyists for these companies are pushing a price fixing scheme that would transfer the cost of that service back to the consumer!
The BP/Wal-Mart bailout amendment – pushed for by lobbyists and offered by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) — creates a government imposed price control system for so-called “interchange fees,” the fee giant retailers and big oil companies pay credit card companies when a consumer uses a credit card. Imposing government control on the fee will put billions of dollars into the pockets of Wal-Mart, big oil companies and other big box retailers who depend on consumer and their credit cards for revenue.
At the same time British Petroleum is spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the environment, the Senate decided to hand them a massive bailout check that will come directly out of consumers’ pockets.
Wal-Mart is not the only beneficiary of the Durbin amendment. Millions of Americans use credit cards to purchase gasoline from the biggest oil companies like Shell, Chevron, Mobil and others.
These companies argue that the bill will somehow benefit consumers. Yet in testimony before Congress their industry representative admitted that they would not be passing along cost savings to consumers.
So, once again, the consumer will pay the price. Credit card reward programs like popular “cash back” programs or frequent flyer miles will be curtailed or eliminated, interest rates will be raised and cards with no annual fees will be a thing of the past.
We may not be able to stop the whole bill, but we can still stop the Big Oil/Big Retailer bailout.
Oppose the BP/WalMart bailout amendment.

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