MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. SCHULTZ: Big banks have been making big dollars with their deceptive credit card practices. Now, today the Senate finally decided enough is enough and passed a credit card bill of rights. This is great news for consumers. President Obama says that he wants to sign the bill before the Memorial Day recess.

But the banks aren't giving up. They're not going to give up $20 billion a year in profit and penalty fees without a fight. The credit card companies plan to go after you if you're a good customer, and that's how they're going to make up the difference; you know, the folks that pay their bills. Well, give me a break on this one.

Joining me now is Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Senator, good to have you with us tonight.

I know that Americans out there want to know, does this clean up? Does this, Dick, take out the fine print in all of this?

SEN. DURBIN: Oh, Ed, let me tell you what we've done. We've managed to close and blow up maybe 40 or 50 tricks and traps that these credit card companies and banks have come up with. Trust me; if this makes it all the way through, signed by the president, they're going to put their accountants and lawyers at work to find some more tricks and traps.

We really need an agency to protect American consumers, one that's on the job full-time. Congress gets around to this every once in a while. This is a good bill, but we need an agency that works on this full-time.

MR. SCHULTZ: Now, what agency are you talking about? Are you talking about growing government on the back of this? What's happening here?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, let me tell you what, we do need it. We have the Consumer Product Safety Commission right now that makes sure that there's no lead paint in toys and that that toaster that you buy doesn't catch fire and the television doesn't blow up after you bring it home. We need to also have in place a financial product safety commission, too, that keeps an eye on these credit card agreements and blows the whistle on these companies when they cross the line.

MR. SCHULTZ: Here's what people want to know. They want to know if there are not going to be any more surprises; like if they pay their bill on time, there's not going to be any arbitrarial (sic) type movement to go from, say, 8 percent to 29 percent for whatever reason. Have you taken that out?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, I can tell you that Senator Chris Dodd led the fight on the Senate floor for this. And he made sure that when it comes to changing the interest rates or upping the interest rates or having people get hit with a penalty and then interest on the penalty and then interest on the interest, we start closing those down one after the other in this Senate bill. And Senator Dodd did a great job to achieve that.

I voted for the bill. It had an overwhelming support in the Senate. I think it'll come out in good shape in the conference report. But we need to do more.

MR. SCHULTZ: But now, Senator Durbin, the credit card companies are saying that, "Well, we're just going to go after the people that have been paying their bill and make it a lot tougher on them." You know, what's the oversight there?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, I think the good news is there's enough bipartisan anger on the floor of the Senate today to pass this kind of reform. I tried to put in some of these provisions 10 years ago and I was beaten back, mainly by the Republican side of the aisle. But now, after the election, after the president's leadership on this, we've seen some changes. We've got to make sure that we keep vigilant, keep an eye out to help consumers, because I know the credit card companies aren't going to go away.

MR. SCHULTZ: Senator Durbin, we got a lot of response from our viewers when you made the comment on this program several weeks ago that the banks own the Senate. Did you prove something here with this? Is this a punch back?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, I can tell you, when I tried to do something on mortgage foreclosures, the banks beat me. Just fair and square, they beat me. And it was unfortunate. Then we came back on credit card reform and we succeeded. I still think there's an agenda we need to work on. I talked about the financial product safety commission. That's one of those things.

The second thing is you ought to be able to get a discount when you pay in cash, check, or with your debt card and don't use a credit card. Right now the credit card companies are stopping that.

And finally, we've got to have a limit on the interest rates that are charged. There are some ripoffs going on here at these payday loans and title loans. These operations are ripping off American consumers, and we need to fight to make sure that they have a chance.

MR. SCHULTZ: So does this bill address payday loans? Because that's different from credit cards, now. Or is that something -- this is something that you want to do in the future. Is that correct?

SEN. DURBIN: That's exactly right. There's more to do.

MR. SCHULTZ: Okay.

SEN. DURBIN: We shouldn't view this credit card reform as the last stop. We've still got to be there to fight for America's consumers, who are struggling in this recession.

MR. SCHULTZ: Senator Durbin, great to have you with us on "The Ed Show." Thanks so much.

SEN. DURBIN: Thanks, Ed.

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