Senator Joe Biden (MBNA-DE)

I about fell off my chair listening to the third presidential debates when Senator Obama suggested that Senator Biden was some how a champion of middle America and the little guy.   I was beginning to think that Obama had some how gotten into his own koolaid.  Joe Biden, especially when it comes to economic issues, is not the friend of working families who get in a tight pinch. Here’s the comments and here’s the original transcript.

OBAMA: Well, Joe Biden, I think, is one of the finest public servants that has served in this country. It’s not just that he has some of the best foreign policy credentials of anybody. And Democrats and Republicans alike, I think, acknowledge his expertise there.

But it’s also that his entire life he has never forgotten where he came from, coming from Scranton, fighting on behalf of working families, remembering what it’s like to see his father lose his job and go through a downward spiral economically.

And, as a consequence, his consistent pattern throughout his career is to fight for the little guy. That’s what he’s done when it comes to economic policies that will help working families get a leg up.

Senator Obama evidently has forgotten about two things for which we can thank Joe Biden.  The first is the current bankruptcy bill which makes it difficult for folks who get into financial trouble for things like unemployment and overwhelming health catastrophic costs to ever recover from.  The second is that he’s never met a credit card company supported bill he doesn’t like.

Here’s what one liberal blogger said about that bill while Biden was still running for President.  Notice that it also references another ‘progressive’ blog.

The bankruptcy bill is such a cruel piece of legislation, especially to single mothers and people without health insurance, that Kos crossed Biden right off his list of potential candidates. I’m unaware of any major or medium size blogger that supports Biden’s campaign…and it really all comes back to the bankruptcy bill.

There was also this (as reported by the NY Time) floating around concerning dealings behind the passage of the same bankruptcy bill.

 During the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday.

Senator McCain voted for this bill as well as Senator Biden.  Senator Obama voted against this bill, but seems to have conveniently forgotten it.  The NY Times also reported, in that same article cited above, this:

Consumer advocates say that Senator Biden was one of the first Democratic leaders to support the bankruptcy bill, and he voted for it four times — in 1998, 2000, 2001 and in March 2005, when its final version passed the Senate by a vote of 74 to 25.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer group that opposed the bill, said that Senator Biden had provided a “veneer of bipartisanship” that eventually helped the credit card companies win over other Democrats. “He provided cover to other Democrats to do what the credit industry was urging them to do,” Mr. Plunkett said.

Here’s more on “Credit Card Joe” from the National Review Online.  When Joe was in some financial trouble himself, he got help from the CEO of MBNA.

 John Cochran, the company’s vice-chairman and chief marketing officer, did pay top dollar for Biden’s house, and MBNA gave Cochran a lot of money—$330,000—to help with “expenses” related to the move. A few months after the sale, as Biden’s re-election effort got under way, MBNA’s top executives contributed generously to his campaign in a series of coordinated donations that sidestepped the limits on contributions by the company’s political action committee. And then, a short time after the election, MBNA hired Biden’s son for a lucrative job in which, according to bank officials, he is being groomed for a senior management position.

It is possible that the next financial debacle comes from this kissing cousin to the subprime market:  credit cards.  They are also users of some of the most deceptive lending practices you can find. You’ll recognize some of these I’m sure.  How about that Over Limit Fee and bump you get in an interest rate when the company just okays a purchase rather than rejecting it?  Here’s one that is my personal “favorite” since it is an ongoing F**k for me at the moment.  It is the fine print that says the bank will apply all payments to the lowest interest rate bearing things first. You can’t even send them a specific payment for anything else.  When I tried to pay off a $40 cash advance I had to pull during my flight from Hurricane Katrina (which is the ONLY cash advance I’ve ever had and due to my banks being closed and underwater) I was told I’d have to pay the entire balance off.  I pulled $40 to help pay a Toll for the Kansas Tollway on my way to my daughter in Nebraska. That $40 is now a balance of $254.76 because I can’t get the silly thing down far enough to even dream of paying off that. It’s the very last thing they will EVER apply my payments towards so thanks Joe, thanks for supporting those credit card companies!!  I have to say you’re a real peach by my standards as a solidly middle class person and little guy!

So, my next question is do you think Joe’s been a part of this discussion OR even a sponsor of bills to eliminate these unfair practices?  Nope.  The so-called Dodd-Levin The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act has a few sponsors listed here at  Senator Levin’s website.  It’s worth a read because it is a bill that would definitely help the middle class that relies so heavily on credit card debt.  Is this going to be yet another missed chance at regulating an industry (like the subprime market) that goes into fueling a financial crisis? If so, what will be the terms of the bailouts and where will Senator Biden, MBNA-DE stand?