FDIC

Chris Dodd has a new silver bullet to rescue his sinking political career.

He's hot to pass a "credit card reform bill" to "protect consumers"

No doubt this will be more popular than say, sweetheart mortgages or signing off on bonuses to his contributors, or having his wife earn millions from corporate boards.

But why now? After all Dodd's been chairman of the Senate Banking Committee for almost three years and just got around to getting this bill moving....even though he's claimed to have supported reform for two decades?  (Perhaps that's the "lifetime of leadership"...complain over and over again about the same stuff you never fix)

Well, when you spend over 100 days in Iowa your work in Washington does tend to suffer. 

But why is credit card reform now moving through the Senate faster than a speeding bullet?

Because it's just a trojan horse for another bailout.

Tucked deep inside Chris Dodd's "credit card reform bill" is this little nugget.....an increase of up to $500 billion in borrowing authority for the FDIC.

The bill would provide a permanent increase in the FDIC’s authority to borrow from $30 billion to $100 billion and would provide a temporary increase of up to $500 billion under certain conditions"

Think another $500 billion bank bailout would go over too well right now? So, guess what , we'll just make it the "fine print" in the "credit card reform' bill and make anyone who votes "No" out to be "anti-consumer"

How is that any less sleazy than the fine print in credit card statements this bill claims to prevent? Seems like the banks may be prevented from secretly changing your credit limit, but politicians think nothing of doing it themselves. 

Besides, why do we need to give the FDIC more money? Weren't we told last summer that Dodd "didn't expect many more banks to fail" 

We're up to 33 banks already this year, Chris.