Maurice Hinchey: “I find this inexplicable. This is the House of Representatives. We are here purposefully to protect the interests of the…”

“I find this inexplicable. This is the House of Representatives. We are here purposefully to protect the interests of the American people. There is no situation in which it is more clear as to where the interest of the American people lie than in the context of this amendment that has been offered today by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). I assume that is why it passed the Committee on Appropriations by such a strong vote. But for political reasons, the Committee on Rules has decided not to protect the amendment, not to allow it to come out here and not be subject to the kind of opposition it received a moment ago from the gentleman from Florida. This issue should be debated on the floor of this House. This amendment should be passed. Why? Because the credit card companies are increasingly putting American families deeper and deeper and deeper in debt. The average debt now, according to the Federal Reserve, the average debt of the average American family is 115 percent of income and the main reason for that is credit card debt. The credit card companies attract consumers, often attracting them in at relatively reasonable interest rates, and then very rapidly for extraneous reasons and circumstances, increase those rates. And the debt that people owe to credit card companies is going up and up and up.…”