On a snowy Thursday in the nation’s capital – with little more than a week to go until Christmas – the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank decided once again to play Santa to a select group of businesses that included the world’s wealthiest corporations. And once again, average Americans are going to be footing the bill for this fat cats’ holiday feast served up by the Fed.

The gift the Fed voted to give on Dec. 16 wasn’t free money through more quantitative easing – or whatever new name they have come up with to make inflation sound nice – although that’s probably coming up soon. Rather, under the direction of an amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” law by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Fed bestowed near-free access to the services of the vast electronic debit card payment system for some of the nation’s wealthiest retailers – with the tab to be paid for by community banks, credit unions and, of course – you the American consumer.

If the Fed’s proposed rule goes through, come next Christmas Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Home Depot and the other retailers who lobbied for this piece of corporate welfare will have even more overstuffed stockings. These and other retailers benefit greatly from consumers using cards, both in increased sales and in protection from the costs of fraud from bad checks and theft of cash, yet they have gone charging to Washington to for a regulatory “free lunch” to allow them to shift the costs of these valuable services to consumers.

In one of those rare moments of politicians acknowledging the true masters whom they serve, Sen. Durbin admitted on the Senate floor that the CEO of Walgreens, headquartered outside of Chicago in his home state, called him to complain that the transaction fees Walgreens pays to process debit and credit cards were “the fourth largest item of cost for their business.” Durbin actually argued that relieving costs of doing business for a company that makes $2 billion in annual profits was a reason for support price controls on what they pay for financial services.

But the Fed even exceeded Durbin’s order, filling the wish lists of Walgreens and other merchants while giving their customers several lumps of coal. Next holiday season, even if they are not paying vastly inflated prices for the goods they buy due to quantitative easing, American consumers will be losing their free checking, seeing the return of annual fees, and getting significantly reduced reward points for the purchases they make with plastic.

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The Louisiana oil crisis continues unabated. Oil continues to pollute the Gulf and the Obama Administration continues to fiddle while Louisiana suffers.

In addition to being angry with BP and the Obama Administration’s weak response, activists have taken to the street to protest Louisiana’s Senators’ support for a BP bailout. Apparently both Louisiana Senators decided to cater to the special interests and voted for the Durbin Amendment to the Financial Reform bill that would increase the profits of companies like BP by shifting the cost of credit transactions away from them and forcing consumers to pay for them instead.

Both parties are responsible for the passage of the Durbin Amendment to bailout BP and other big retailers.
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The parallels to 1994 are all around us.  A Democrat president is elected.  He pushes big government agenda items like health care.  His presidency gets mired by scandal and circumstances.  His poll numbers begin to drop quickly.   In 1994 Republicans rallied around a set of principles and won a congressional majority.  Today, unfortunately, those principles often appear to be missing.

The Contract with America was a critical piece of the Republican victory in 1994 because it let voters know there was an alternative to the big spending ways of the Democrat Party.  Today, not so much.

Republicans appear to be all over the map and the clear principled default lines are missing.

Nowhere does that appear more evident than on the Financial Reform legislation.  The bill passed the Senate after the Democrats broke the Republican dam.  Sen. Scott Brown joined others in moving the bill to a House Senate Conference where things are going from bad to worse.  Republicans didn’t help make the bill “better” by voting for amendment’s like the Durbin price control amendment.

The time has come to for Republicans to begin to draft distinctions between Democrats and their big government policies.  The Financial Reform legislation is a good place to start.  The bill contains bailouts, takeovers, and price control schemes — via the Durbin Amendment — that is corporate welfare at it’s worse.

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The violent left has attacked conservative activists protesting big government, big spending and big bailout scheme proposed by Congress.  Tea Party activists in Tampa and St. Louis were beaten by left wing activists earlier this year.  Add Greensboro to that list.  This week, a group of local citizens in North Carolina protesting the Financial Reform bill and the Durbin BP Bailout amendment were accosted and then physically attacked by a left-wing activist who blamed George Bush for America’s ills.  Here is the video:

Like a bad cold it can’t shake, the left continues to attempt to blame every ill on George W. Bush.  But as one activists in the video pointed out, its actually one Barack Obama and Senator Dick Durbin who are about to hand a massive check to the very company responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

The Durbin Amendment to the financial reform bill is the latest government policy proposal that will pad BP’s bottom line.  The amendment would create a government imposed price control scheme that would shift billions of dollars away from consumer to retailers (British Petroleum, Exxon, WalMart).  That’s why the Durbin Amendment is supported by the  big retailers like Walmart, Petroleum Marketers Association and other prominent lobbyist groups which are funded, in part, by British Petroleum.

Proponents cynically and falsely claim it would help consumers, but its hard to see many consumers feeling benefited by paying higher prices while mega corporations increase their profits.

Just look at who is pushing this amendment—oil Companies and giant retailers.

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When Washington opened the doors to taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street firms they set off a modern day gold rush for lobbyists, corporations and unions looking to get their piece of the pie. The car companies lined up for their handout. Big labor and their failed underfunded pensions are angling for bailouts. And now major retailers like Walmart and oil companies like British Petroleum are lobbying for their government created wealth transfer payment. Welcome to the world of the Durbin Amendment to the Financial Reform bill — a new bailout attached to a giant bailout bill.

A coalition of lobbyists for oil and gas companies, convenience stores, giant retailers and petroleum marketers have conned Senators into supporting a provision that is tantamount to a bailout for perfectly profitable multi-billion corporations.

There was a time when a business was looking to cut costs, they would tighten their belt and make changes within their company to ensure profitability. No longer. Now companies hire Washington lobbyists who push schemes to shift costs from the company to other companies, or worse yet, the consumer. That is exactly what the Durbin amendment to the Financial Reform bill is all about.

When giant corporations like BP and Walmart accept payment via credit cards, they pay a fee for processing services. The Durbin amendment empowers the Fed to cap the cost of those services to these industry giants. Proponents of the so-called “swipe fee” amendment have cynically argued that this amendment would somehow benefit consumers. But in reality, the Durbin amendment is a lobbyist-written, government imposed price control program that will shift the cost of accepting credit cards from mega corporations to consumers.

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