Senate Republicans Passed Another Reverse Robin Hood Bill Yesterday For Their Bankster Buddies

Trump Lied: The Senate Just Killed The CFPB Overdraft Fee Cap

Republicans voted to bring back the bad old days

Exist polling for early voting in FL-06 shows Democrat Josh Weil significantly ahead. It doesn’t mean he will win in this R+14 congressional district that was once represented by Ron DeSantis, but it put a scare into the GOP so big that they got Elon Musk, the crypto-cartel and other GOP enablers to start spending money supporting extremely unpopular Republican Randy Fine. On top of that, Trump withdrew his nomination of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador, nervous that they could lose the special election (in her R+9 district, just the way they lost a special election this past Tuesday in a “safe” Pennsylvania state Senate seat in an R+23 district). Since Trump was elected last November, the 14 special elections for legislative seats have swung towards Democrat, on average, by 10 points.

One thing the Republicans won’t do, though, is change the unpopular policies that have gotten them into this predicament. For example, on Thursday, Senate Republicans passed a resolution disallowing a Biden era CFPB rule that capped bank overdraft fees. This directly takes money out of the pockets of consumers and puts it into the hands of the banksters— who donated $24 million to Republican candidates last year. Corruption much?

Yesterday, Ryan Bort reported on that $5 overdraft fee cap Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC),” he wrote, “had the gall to say that removing the CFPB’s cap on overdraft fees would be ‘good for consumers’ while arguing for the resolution on the Senate floor. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), the only Republican to join Democrats in opposing the resolution, disagrees. ‘Why would we help the big banks at the expense of working people?’ Hawley asked reporters following the vote. I just don’t understand it.’”

Bort wrote that “The CFPB’s cap on overdraft fees— which then-Director Rohit Chopra said would save consumers $5 billion a year— led to a lawsuit in December from the American Bankers Association, which alleged the CFPB overstepped its authority and claimed, like Scott, the cap actually hurts consumers. While Trump campaigned on capping credit card interest rates, his administration endorsed Scott’s legislation. Team Trump isn’t just going after the cap on overdraft fees— it wants to effectively eliminate the CFPB.  ‘CFPB RIP,’ Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is orchestrating the administration’s destruction of federal systems that aid working Americans, wrote in February. Musk acknowledged in a subsequent post that the CFPB ‘did above zero good things,’ but that it ‘still needs to go.’”

Elizabeth Warren told Bort that “Over the past few years, 6.7 million people filed complaints with the CFPB. Finally, in America, they had someone on their side when they went up against a giant bank or a fly-by-night, sleazy lender. They got some help— a little more of a level playing field. Donald Trump wants to take that away from them.” 

The bill now goes to the House. Hawley was the only Republican senator who stood up to Musk and Trump but in the House there are at least a couple dozen Republicans who could suffer at the polls if they vote to end the cap, particularly Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn in Iowa, Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin, Ryan Mackenzie, Scott Perry, Brian Fitzpatrick and Ron Bresnahan in Pennsylvania, Tom Kean in New Jersey, Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler in New York, Bill Huizenger, John James and Tom Barrett in Michigan, Juan Ciscomani and Dave Schweikert in Arizona, Ken Calvert, Young Kim, Dave Valadao and Kevin Kiley in California, Maria Salazar, Laurel Lee and Anna Paulina Luna in Florida and Don Bacon in Nebraska. 

Lukas Ventouras, the New Deal Suffolk County Democrat running for the congressional seat Nick LaLota is wasting, told us that his opponent “has proven once again, that he’s not the champion of the working class Long Islander he claims to be. His vote to repeal a Biden era law capping big bank overdraft fees at $5 will be another indication that he serves Wall Street and the MAGA movement, not Suffolk County’s working families. If he was serious about alleviating the financial burden Long Islanders face, he would stand up to exploitative practices against consumers. Instead, he helps Trump, Musk and the rest of his party re-institute these practices.”