Political Quotes

“I was happy today to cast my vote for H.R. 1151, the Credit Union Membership Access Act. I was happier still that the majority of the House of Representatives voted for H.R. 1151 as well. Credit unions are the banks of working people: Credit unions do not charge exorbitant bank fees; they do not have excessive account minimums. They make low interest loans, mainly to their members in the communities in which they live. Credit unions are run by their members, who have a voice in the operation and policies of their credit union. Small businesses depend on credit unions for those reasons because offering credit union membership as a benefit to prospective employees is a benefit that workers value. Credit unions are very small compared with banks. The average credit union has less than $28 million in assets--less than 1/16th the assets of the average bank. The two largest U.S. banks (Chase and Citibank) combined have more assets than all 12,047 credit unions combined. Furthermore, banks today control nearly every dollar in savings (93 percent) and in loans (94 percent) in the United States. With nearly complete market dominance, banks have also chalked up record profits in recent years, posting an all-time record last year of $52 billion, much of which is due to the many new fees they are charging small consumers. But the banks were not satisfied, and in spite of their overwhelming market dominance and record profits, they lobbied to squash credit unions.”