Political Quotes

“Madam President, yesterday, incidentally, I spoke about Bank of America's decision to impose a $5 fee on their loyal customers who have debit cards. Bank of America announced that this fee had to be collected because they were going to be restrained in the amount of swipe fees they could charge for people who use debit cards. Those who follow this issue know the Federal Reserve took a look at this. Every time we use a piece of plastic to pay for something--as a debit card--there is a charge imposed on the retailer--the restaurant, the bookstore, the grocery store, you name it. There is a charge imposed. So we asked the Federal Reserve to take a look at that charge that is being imposed by the credit card companies through the banks, and here is what they found. The actual cost of a bank and Visa or MasterCard processing a debit card transaction is anywhere from 4 cents to 12 cents. Remember when they used to process checks for pennies no matter what the face value was? Well, the actual cost of the debit card--the new checking account, the plastic checking account--is 4 cents to 12 cents a transaction. Then the Federal Reserve Board said: What are they actually charging the retailers?…”