Senate Votes Down Limits on Credit Card Interest Rate

The Senate overwhelmingly rejected an effort to impose a 15 percent cap on interest rates for banks and credit card companies yesterday. The banking and credit card lobby had made this vote a priority with literally hundreds of lobbyists working members. It was an interesting alliance of Republican and Deomocratic members on a volatile issue.

The statement only seems to confirm a recent statement by Sen. Dick Durban: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”

The legislation was proposedl by Senator Bernard Sanders, who could only get 33 votes. He lost a large number of Democrats listed below:

Akaka (HI)
Baucus (MT)
Bayh (IN)
Bingaman (NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Hagan (D-NC)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Warner (D-VA)

For the full story, click here.