Just one day brings much-needed hope

April 30 marked a rare day of common sense in Washington, D.C.

First, the House of Representatives passed the Credit Card Holders "Bill of Rights." Banks have been taking advantage of marginal credit card holders by arbitrarily increasing interest rates, imposing retroactive late fees, imposing retroactive rate hikes, introducing double billing cycles, etc. Passing this bill was the right thing to do to protect the folks from banks changing the rules without warning or notice, and they are to be congratulated.

At the same time, the Senate had the common sense to kill Sen. Durbin's mortgage "Cramdown bill." Apparently one banking collapse is not enough; Sen. Durbin wanted to cause another. This bill would have allowed a judge to force a bank to dramatically reduce the money it was promised if the mortgage holder was not able to meet their commitment.

It is easy to blame banks, but it really affects you. If this bill had passed, banks would have had to dramatically increase mortgage rates to everyone to offset the risk of judges arbitrarily downgrading their mortgage loan returns.

In addition, if you have a pension, own bank stocks, or own mutual funds, you would have lost money under this deal as a judge could give your money to someone who could not pay their mortgage.

A mortgage is a commitment from both parties, and commitments mean something. A combination of Republicans and Democrats agreed that this bill was destructive and unfair and voted it down.

Maybe there is hope for Washington!

Randy Rossi

Grayslake