It’s hard to write legislation that would make every average American worse off. It’s even harder to pass. But that’s precisely what the number two Senate Democrat Dick Durbin (D-IL) aims to do with his new credit card routing legislation.
In what’s become a white whale for one of the most senior members of the Democratic Party, Sen. Durbin recently reintroduced legislation that would expand Dodd-Frank debit card routing mandates to credit cards. It’s been on his wish list for over a decade, and while it might not sound like a big deal, a closer look reveals that Durbin’s whale would sink America’s Main Street faster than an orca on a Spanish fishing boat.
The bill in question would redirect revenue away from credit card fraud protection, consumer rewards programs, and community bank funding and put it right into the pocket of big box retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. (I’ll give you three guesses as to whose lobbying for the bill).
