Credit Card Bill Forces Dems to Take Vote on Gun Rights

[festus]

An odd thing happened on the way to Congress overhauling the credit card industry -- lawmakers gave the thumbs-up to allowing loaded guns in parks.
Credit Card Bill Forces Dems to Take Vote on Gun Rights - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com
The weapons amendment was slipped into the Senate version of the credit card bill, which passed Wednesday by an overwhelming vote. The amendment, inserted by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., restores Bush administration policy allowing loaded guns in national parks.

Now House Democrats have to approve the same Senate version, and in turn take a vote against gun control, in order to avoid kicking it back to the other chamber.

The Democrat-led Congress is intent on sending to President Obama's desk the legislation that would impose sweeping restrictions on credit card companies in the name of consumer protection. Considering the large number of moderate Democrats in the House, the bill is expected to pass intact when it comes for a vote Wednesday.

But navigating around a gun amendment takes delicate legislative maneuvering, and anti-gun Democrats will have a chance to go on record against the amendment without torpedoing the overall bill.

That's because the House will hold two votes: one for the credit card end of things, one for the firearms portion. This gives anti-gun members political cover by allowing them to vote against the guns amendment and then for the credit card bill.

But the Coburn amendment showed that a surprising number of Democrats -- 27 on the Senate side -- are willing to back legislation expanding gun rights.

Among those who voted "yes" was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who had blocked Coburn's amendment from coming to the Senate floor for more than a year. Seven other Western Democrats voted with Reid to support the Republican senator's amendment, which allows a range of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are allowed by federal, state and local law.

Spokesman Jim Manley said Reid is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, adding that the guns in parks issue was a major concern for many Nevadans.

Meanwhile, the credit card bill is targeted at addressing consumer concerns.

The bill would enact sweeping new restrictions on the industry, including a requirement that customers penalized by higher interest rates because they missed a payment are given a chance to reclaim their lower rate after six months.

Obama is expected to sign the bill into law. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said the bill would "create a more fair, transparent and simple consumer credit market."

Of the five senators sympathetic to card lenders, two were from South Dakota, where thousands of jobs depend on the industry. Republican Sen. John Thune estimated the bill would cost as many as 5,000 jobs in his home state.

Sen. Tim Johnson, also from South Dakota and the only Democrat to oppose the bill, agreed it could be devastating.

"This is a time when millions of consumers are already facing lower credit limits and higher interest rates on their credit cards because of decreasing credit availability and continued economic instability," he said.

Also opposing the bill were GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Robert Bennett of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona.

But their voices were drowned out by lawmakers who said their offices had received dozens of complaints from voters.

"We said that big banks can no longer take advantage of hardworking Americans," Reid said of the Senate vote.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Del., on Wednesday brushed aside talk that credit will be more scarce if Congress approves the bill.

Calling Tuesday's Senate vote "a great day for consumers," Dodd also said people still must handle their money responsibly and pay their bills on time. But he also said the measure was "a long time coming, a long time overdue."

Dodd said any assertion that credit will be hard to get is absurd, "a little like Chicken Little."

Under the new bill, a customer would have to be more than 60 days behind on a payment before seeing a rate increase on an existing balance. Even then, the lender would be required to restore the previous, lower rate after six months if the cardholder pays the minimum balance on time.

Consumers also would have to receive 45 days' notice and an explanation before their interest rate was increased.

FOX News' Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

[johnsteele]

Actually I'm more concerned about the damage to the country from the credit card "overhaul" than I am about whether or not I can carry in the Everglades.

Everyone who uses credit cards responsibly is going to be penalized to bail out the incompetents and deadbeats, just like the home mortgage fiasco. The Democrats can't stand the concept of people being responsible for their actions.

[Bohemian]

Actually I'm more concerned about the damage to the country from the credit card "overhaul" than I am about whether or not I can carry in the Everglades.

Everyone who uses credit cards responsibly is going to be penalized to bail out the incompetents and deadbeats, just like the home mortgage fiasco. The Democrats can't stand the concept of people being responsible for their actions.

Actually its not just the Everglades; its ANY NATIONAL PARK IN THE COUNTRY...

For example as recently happened you could go to certain National Parks in Utah and California and have a bear attack your family and not be allowed to defend yourself... and watch while a bear mauls your child to death...

While the Credit Card Bill is not the greatest thing in the world, it actually keeps the Credit Card Company's from gouging people so much on interest, and forces them to be more forthcoming about the stinking fine print nobody can read, that says things like if you have a heart attack, lose your job and default on your credit card, they can charge you 50% interest or more and can't be discharged by bankruptcy; so on this one for the most part it is better for us then it is for the card companies whom have been sticking it to us for quite sometime...

And its likely to be the only pro-second amendment thing to come out of Washington before 2012 if Gun Ban Obama and Company are not shot, Imprisoned for Treason and or impeached first...

[festus]

This should be on his desk by Friday. Will he sign it...or send it back?????

[Bohemian]

This should be on his desk by Friday. Will he sign it...or send it back?????

IF Obama signs it... IT will be the FIRST pro-second amendment bill/amendment he has supported in his entire career...

To be brief, I believe Obama will sign this bill, why when it goes against everything he campaigned on and his entire political career?

Obama will be following Saul Alinsky’s counsel to do and say whatever it takes to gain power...

IF Obama veto's or sends the bill back it will cost him power... POLITICAL POWER, not to mention he is scheduled to head for Nevada to campaign for Prince Harry Reid's 2010 re-election campaign...

"Obama learned his lesson well. I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday." --Letter from L. DAVID ALINSKY, son of Neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky

"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism." - Saul Alinsky

Who is Saul Alinsky? One Obama admires so much that he continued his teachings to ACORN, and others long after Alinsky's death...

Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method...

Rules for Radicals
By Saul Alinsky - 1971

WHO ELSE ?

Hillary Clinton's 1969 Political Science Thesis ("There is Only the Fight") refers to an earlier version of Alinsky’s training manual. "In 1946,” she wrote, "Alinsky's first book, Reveille for Radicals, was published."

Yes folks, our sadly duped fellow citizens that blindly supported Obama or Hillary, were very effectively manipulated into doing so...

[johnsteele]

Actually its not just the Everglades; its ANY NATIONAL PARK IN THE COUNTRY...

For example as recently happened you could go to certain National Parks in Utah and California and have a bear attack your family and not be allowed to defend yourself... and watch while a bear mauls your child to death...

While the Credit Card Bill is not the greatest thing in the world, it actually keeps the Credit Card Company's from gouging people so much on interest, and forces them to be more forthcoming about the stinking fine print nobody can read, that says things like if you have a heart attack, lose your job and default on your credit card, they can charge you 50% interest or more and can't be discharged by bankruptcy; so on this one for the most part it is better for us then it is for the card companies whom have been sticking it to us for quite sometime...

And its likely to be the only pro-second amendment thing to come out of Washington before 2012 if Gun Ban Obama and Company are not shot, Imprisoned for Treason and or impeached first...

I KNOW its all parks depending on the state laws. The Everglades was just an example. My concern is that while the relatively small number of people who are rejoicing over being allowed to carry in the parks EVERYONE who uses credit cards responsibly (a far larger number of people) is going to pay for the ones who are irresponsible. This is the same thing those morons in Congress did to us with the mortgage bailout. If you bought a house you can afford and pay your mortgageon time every month you are subsidizing the irresponsible people.

Gun rights are very important to me, and I'm glad they addressed the idiot parks ban. But the price we are going to pay in the long run is further damage to everyone and the economy. We gun owners will be able to cheer all the way to the poor house as Obama and the Democrats runs the country even further into the ground.

[johnsteele]

This should be on his desk by Friday. Will he sign it...or send it back?????

He'll sign it because control over another part of the economy is more important to him and a few guns in the parks.

[HK4U]

As I get closer to the magic age of 62 the more I am glad that I will be able to carry in National Parks with out the worry of being arrested for unlawful carry. I plan to spend a lot of time in them in a few years. That is of course if my social security is still there by then or worse if we even have or Republic by then.