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David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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October 24, 2007 11:13 AM
Obama Camp Feigns Outrage, Distracting From Obama's Vote to Allow Loan Sharking
The Obama campaign is attacking the Washington Post's Harold Meyerson for saying that Obama voted for the credit card industry-written Bankruptcy Bill in 2005, which is not true. Obama voted against the final bill. However, Obama did, in fact, vote against an amendment to that bill that cuts to the core of the matter. Here's what I reported in my 2006 profile of Obama in The Nation:
"[Obama] voted against the credit-card-industry-written bankruptcy bill [but] Obama also voted against an amendment that would have capped credit-card interest rates at a whopping 30 percent."
Check the record right here. It was an amendment by Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) "To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent," as the Senate's website notes.
So sure, while Meyerson got the details wrong, the spirit of what he wrote is, in fact, right. Obama sided with the credit card industry on the core issue of whether it should be allowed to loan shark and charge customers more than an astounding 30 percent interest rate. You may also recall that 18 U.S. Senators changed their votes on that issue from a few years before that vote - and in the interim received a huge amount of credit card industry campaign contributions.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
Meyerson has obviously been influenced by your opinions about Obama and was trying to parrot them in his editorial. You make excuses for him, but the truth is that the writer didn't bother to get his story straight and someone failed to accurately fact-check his piece. So how exactly does that make "the spirit of what he wrote" correct? Obama didn't vote for the bankruptcy bill, and his vote on the amendment doesn't change that fact. And as far as the amendment goes, in the comments section of that ThinkProgress post you yourself admitted:
Maybe they felt 30% was too high (it is) and didn't want to go on record supporting a ridiculous cap like that.
Obama is nothing but a placeholder and in Florida, most blacks I've talked to call him a SUPER OREO COOKIE ! If confronted with the Willie Logan tragedy, Obama would probably dismiss it in his limousine liberal attitude. Let's see Obama get his butt down here to Tampa or even Gadsden County and prove to all of us voters why we should even consider giving him a chance when he hasn't even had a full senate term worth anything to qualify for !
Obama's been a complete fraud ever since he won the Senate seat in 2004. If he really cared to fight against the bankruptcy mess, here's an issue he'd have considered tackling:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/23/4748/
He could only get a C from Drum Major. Maybe it was an honest mistake because Obama never saw a corporate written law he didn't like.
What even more pathetic is only 58% of Dem Senators voted with middle class on bankruptcy, 59% on class action, and 43% on energy policy. Hmm, somehow Clinton pulled out an A in regards to middle class issues.
While I am certainly no fan of Hillary, I have always thought, at least in regards to economics, Obama was to the right of her. Of course Obama voted against a 30% cap, look at where all his money comes from.
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