DICKIE DURBIN'S DAFFY SENATE TIRADE

Bank of America, they are coming to get ‘ya. Dickie Durbin (D-Ill), 2nd ranking Democrat in the Senate, is after your hide. He’s aiming for you. He can send the power of the entire federal government down on your head, so watch out. He’s telling your customers to leave: “Bank of America customers, vote with your feet, get the heck out of that bank. Find yourself a bank or credit union that won’t gouge you for $5 a month and still will give you a debit card that you can use every single day. What Bank of America has done is an outrage.” Yeah, that’s right, those are Durbin’s exact words.

Dickie’s tirade has to do with BOA’s new fee of $5 per month to users of BOA’s debit cards. He’s upset at the audacity of BOA charging for debit card services, so on the floor of the U. S. Senate he takes BOA to task and tells people to get the heck out of BOA.

The real truth is that BOA’s new debit card fee is a direct result of the Dodd Frank Bill, a behemoth regulation that is partly responsible for no jobs being created by the Jobs President. The Durbin Amendment to Dodd Frank floated around for almost a year before it was finally adopted when Durbin pushed the issue. The Durbin Amendment gives the Federal Reserve the power to regulate debit card swipe fees. Oh, sounds so warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? Gonna save the consumer from the horrible big banks, let’s get right to it. And so they did.

For the readers who don’t know what a “swipe fee” is, I will explain. Every time a consumer uses a debit card, any debit card, by the way, the business is charged a “swipe fee” by the bank issuing the debit card. This fee averages 44 cents per transaction. But Durbin and the Federal Reserve have taken the position that the 44 cent swipe fee is highway robbery, it’s bank chicanery, bank gouging. They have mandated that the most banks can now charge is 24 cents per swipe. Oh, this all sounds good for the consumer, wouldn’t you think?

But wait, The Fed released their final rule on the matter and determined that the combination of reduced fees, restrictions and caps is going to cost banks nearly $14 billion annually. Do the Fed and Dickie Durbin think the banks will just lose $14 billion annually without making it up somewhere? Could they be that stupid? I guess so because they are now regulating the swipe fee. They must not understand “unintended consequences.”

Now Durbin has come under great fire from media around the country who argue BOA’s new monthly fee is a direct result of Durbin’s amendment to the Dodd Frank so-called financial reform bill. The Chicago Tribune said the “charge, which other banks are likely to adopt, is a direct result of his lawmaking. Call it the Durbin Fee.”

Wells Fargo is going to charge $3 per month. J. P. Morgan Chase will be imposing a similar fee. All banks will eventually do the same thing. They are not about to “eat” billions in loses because Durbin and his compatriots are ignorant of how the market place operates.

And of course, now Durbin is pointing his finger at everyone else in trying to deflect attention from the truth of the matter.

Because Dodd Frank and Senator Durbin stuck their liberal noses into a marketplace issue, consumers are now being harmed as a direct result of their handy work.

While Dickie Durbin stands on the floor of the U.S. Senate and berates BOA and big banks, I wanted to ask him, if he hates big banks so much, why did he vote for the 2008 $45 billion bailout of BOA. If he really thinks big banks are crooks, cheaters and gougers, why’d he approve bailing BOA out of a mess that they created?

And the most important thing I’d ask him is who does he think he is using the floor of the U. S. Senate to encourage the American public to boycott a business? The Founding Fathers surely never intended the U. S. Senate to be used for such egregious, flagrant, grossly shameless behavior by a sitting U. S. Senator.

OBAMA LIED, OIL DIED IN ALASKA

Yesterday Shell Oil announced that is must scrap efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the Alaskan coast. The Reason? Obama's EPA Environmental Appeals Board is refusing to issue air permits to Shell.

Shell has spent 5 years and $4 billion getting ready to drill for oil in the Alaskan waters. The estimated 27 billion barrels of oil represents 2 1/2 times more oil than has flowed down the Alaskan pipeline in the last 30 years. Because production on the North Slope of Alaska is declining at about 7% a year, and the pipeline is currently carrying 1/3 of its capacity, the pipeline will have to shut down at some point. The Shell drilling plan was intended to produce enough oil to keep the Alaskan Pipeline open for decades to come.

The reason the EPA-EAB said NO? They believe that "emissions from an ice-breaking vessel may cause greenhouse gas emissions" from the project. The closest village, Kaktovik, Alaska, is one of the most remote places in the U.S. The population is 245, the village is 1 square mile, and it is 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drilling site.

The EAB issuing this rule has four members. All are registered Democrats, and one of the members, Kathie Stein, was an activist attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund prior to being appointed to the EAB. That tells you all you need to know about her. Members of the EAB are appointed by the EPA administrator, who is appointed by Obama.

So the next time you fill your vehicle with gas, thank Rogue Obama and his soldiers. Be sure to place the blame where it belongs. Don't be fooled by the Justice Department committee he's appointing to make sure the American people don't get scammed by someone on Wall Street, you know, speculators, oil companies, hedge funds, etc. Obama lies. He knows it isn't their fault. After all, he passed the Financial Reform bill that was supposed to stop Wall Street shenanigans.

And don't be swayed by the "record profits" the oil companies are making. Their profit margin is around 7.4%, not an unreasonable expectation for a company. While the profit margin on an IPad is about 46%, just to put things in perspective (yes, forty six percent). If PBO goes after the oil companies for excess profits, what do you think he should do to Apple? Oh, probably nothing, Apple and Steve Jobs are HUGE contributors to the Democrats and Obama in particular.

The biggest scammer in Washington is Obama, the Let's Kill Oil King. This action sanctioned by PBO himself, along with the Print More Money policy of Bernanke and PBO, will drive investments, oil production and many, many thousands of jobs overseas. Then we can get out the checkbook and write a great big American check to purchase what we should be drilling for right here. And in the meantime, thousands more will have to draw unemployment because Obama has failed miserably at creating any jobs except to hire 200,000 more robots in Washington.

And while this Kill Oil action is taking place, all of us will continue to Pay At The Pump. Just wait until it gets to $5 or more per gallon.