| Author
|
Post |
 
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
HUFFINGTON POST Politics
From Secret McConnell Audio, 12 Destructive Things a GOP Senate Would Do
Posted: 10/24/2014 10:36 am EDT Updated: 10/24/2014 10:59 am EDT
If Republicans take the Senate next month (and if he wins his own reelection race), Mitch McConnell will be that body's next Majority Leader. Then what happens?
McConnell's been frank about what the GOP would do with the Senate -- at least when he thinks nobody's listening. This quote comes from audio, obtained by Undercurrent's Lauren Windsor, of a talk McConnell gave to a Koch Brothers group in August:
"Most things in the Senate require 60 (votes) ... but not the budget. So in the House and Senate, we own the budget. What does that mean?
"... No money can be spent to do this or do that. We're going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board ..."
McConnell attacked the Dodd/Frank financial reform bill in further audio obtained by this week by Windsor, calling it "Obamacare for banks."
McConnell said he would "definitely" defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calling it "the biggest part of the Dodd/Frank bill."
But then, that's been his position all along. Senate Republicans refused to accept anyone's nomination to lead the CFPB when it was formed. Said McConnell at the time: "We're simply not going to ... confirm him or anybody else to this agency that shouldn't exist in its current form."
Last year McConnell remarked, "If I had my way, we wouldn't have the [CFPB] at all."
The course of action McConnell lays out in these audio clips would:
1. Expose Americans to toxic threats, and make additional disasters like the BP oil spill more likely.
Cuts in EPA funding are intended to meet the GOP's stated goal of deregulating high-polluting industries like those of the Koch brothers themselves. That would lead to more fracking, more poisons in the groundwater, a higher risk of water-supply crises like the one recently experienced in West Virginia, increased air pollution...
The result? A sicker population which is at greater risk of environmental disaster.
2. Deprive millions of American of health insurance.
The Affordable Care Act isn't perfect. But it has extended health insurance to millions of Americans, both through the exchanges and through Medicaid extensions at the state level (excepting those states where Republican governors have refused to accept Federal funds for that purpose).
Denying funding for the law would, in all likelihood, close down the exchanges and end the Medicaid program. That would lead to thousands of additional deaths like that of Charlene Dill, a young working mother in Florida. (We discussed her death and related topics with Rep. Alan Grayson here).
In addition, millions of Americans would lose their exchange-based health insurance under a Republican Senate, including people who have pre-existing conditions or are under 26 years old.
3. Ensure that money that financial institutions obtain dishonestly -- money like the $4.6 billion the CFPB has already returned to consumers -- would remain in the banks' pockets from now on.
The CFPB reports that it arranged the return of $4.6 billion in improperly obtained fees in its first three years of operation. The money was distributed to 15 million customers. In addition, more than three quarters of a million customers will receive remediation from financial institutions (that is, they'll be made whole) as a result of the CFPB's actions.
These actions will stop under a McConnell-led Senate, according to the senator himself.
4. Give a green light for credit-card companies to resume the "deceptive marketing practices" and other abuses that the CFPB has red-flagged.
In its very first enforcement action the CFPB ordered giant credit-card company Capitol One to repay $150 million to ripped-off customers, as well as $60 million to regulators, after the CFPB and another agency identified dishonest marketing practices that resulted in people being saddled with costly and ineffective add-on services they didn't want or need.
Since then a total of three major credit card companies (American Express and Discover are the others) have returned a total of $425 million. Interventions like this would end under a GOP Senate, according to McConnell, and credit-card companies would be free to resume their past deceptive practices.
5. Make credit-card agreements and mortgage documents harder to understand.
The CFPB's rule require credit-card companies and mortgage lenders to write their agreements in plain English. That will end if McConnell has his way.
The end result? Mortgage agreements that are impossible to understand, with provisions that could lead to foreclosure and/or prove financially ruinous to borrowers.
6. Make it harder to shop for student loans.
Defunding the CFPB would put an end to rules which make it easier for students and their families to comparison-shop for student loans.
The student-loan ombudsman's office, which reviews complaints about student loans, would also be shut down.
7. Decrease oversight of credit bureaus.
That would mean, among other things, that it would become harder for you to obtain your own credit report or correct misinformation on your credit record.
8. Close down the CFPB complaint database.
Consumers can now complain to the CFPB whenever they feel they have been cheated, abused, or misled by financial institutions. The CFPB tracks these complaints and intervenes with lenders where appropriate to resolve problems.
That would end, according to McConnell, under a Republican Senate.
9. Increase racial discrimination in auto loans.
The CFPB has been active in monitoring racial discrimination in auto lending, through its review of the business practice of the "indirect lenders" who underwrite these loans. That would stop.
The remediation which has occurred under this program would also end if the Republican Senate and House act as McConnell indicates they would.
10. Protect "too big to fail" banks.
Although Mitch McConnell claims otherwise, defunding Dodd/Frank would be a boon for too-big-to-fail banks. While he claims the law benefits them, the evidence suggests otherwise. As Mike Konczal observes in The New Republic, banks would pursue that designation if it were advantageous to them. Instead they're making every effort to avoid the label.
11. Help shady derivatives dealers
While more needs to be done, the Dodd/Frank law was a definite improvement over the status quo. Konczal also offers a good overview of its other useful features, most of which would cease to exist if McConnell and the Republicans make good on their threats.
12. Allow more sneaky dealing in mortgages
In Undercurrent's audio clips, McConnell seems to suggest that mortgage lenders didn't contribute to the 2008 financial crisis. This is nonsense. Fraud and excessive risk-taking were endemic throughout the mortgage financing system, from the underwriting of new loans to the bundling and selling of mortgages to third parties. That epidemic of fraud and risk-taking was central to the financial crisis, and to a massive loss of wealth for the American majority.
Americans were persuaded to take out loans without understanding their provisions, based on deceitful projections of their homes' future worth. Investors were deceived, too, as banks knowingly and deceptively bundled and sold junk-value mortgages as high-grade investments (with the collusion of the ratings "agencies").
"I have a friend who runs a mortgage business," McConnell says on the audio recording, "and he says the cost of writing a mortgage has gone up $1000 for him."
Underwriting a mortgage clearly takes more time and effort that generating reams of "liars' loans." Businesses would not rather bother, especially when it's more lucrative to cut corners. That's why they support politicians like Mitch McConnell -- and why the rest of shouldn't.
Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow |
|
|
Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:30 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Daily Kos Staff,
Daily Kos editors
.
Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 10:50 AM PDT.
Mitch McConnell finally confirms he wants to repeal health insurance for 500,000 Kentuckians
by
Jed LewisonFollow
for
Daily Kos.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington June 17, 2014. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3UAWO
attribution: REUTERS
Goal Thermometer
For the past several months, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has tried to have it both ways on Kynect, Kentucky's popular implementation of Obamacare that has delivered health insurance to more than 500,000 Kentuckians. On the one hand, McConnell has said he wants to repeal Obamacare, but on the other hand, he also says Kynect should remain in place if Kentucky wants to keep it.
There's no reasonable way to square those two positions—you can't repeal Obamacare without repealing Kynect, and you can't keep Kynect without keeping Obamacare—but that hasn't stopped McConnell from taking them both. His campaign seems to be perfectly aware of the fact that the two positions cannot be reconciled as evidenced by the fact that despite repeated attempts by Sam Stein of The Huffington Post to get them to clarify his position, they refused to respond:
The Huffington Post asked the McConnell campaign that very question the day after the debate. We asked the campaign the same question twice more that day. Then, we posed the question to them seven more times over the subsequent nine days. We also called the campaign twice. The campaign never responded.
But now McConnell's team has finally responded, albeit through his official Senate office:
A spokesman for the minority leader confirmed that he wants to repeal the full health care law, including not just the federal subsidies for people purchasing on exchanges like Kynect, but also the mandates and taxes on high-cost plans and other features of the legislation.
Keeping Kynect without keeping its subsidies would be like keeping Social Security without Social Security checks—it would be keeping it in name only. And with its statement to The Huffington Post, McConnell is now on record conceding that is what his position is.
Help make sure that Mitch McConnell never gets a chance to be Senate Majority Leader—chip in $3 to Senate candidates endorsed by Daily Kos.
Defeat Mitch McConnell in just two hours. Sign up to make GOTV calls to Democrats.
It was obvious all along that McConnell was full of it. And now we've got confirmation—from his own office, no less. .
.
Originally posted to Daily Kos on Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 10:50 AM PDT.
Also republished by My Old Kentucky Kos. |
|
|
|
Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:34 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Thursday, Oct 9, 2014 4:58 PM UTC
EXCLUSIVE: Bank of America’s horrid “customer service” scandal
"It's hurting the customer, it's hurting us," a whistleblower says. How the bank's neglect reached a tipping point
Sarah Jaffe
Topics: Bank of America, customer service, Banks, Editor's Picks, Workers, Labor, organizing, Unions, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mortgages, Whistleblower, Business News, Politics News
EXCLUSIVE: Bank of America's horrid "customer service" scandal
(Credit: AP/Matt Rourke)
Tony (last name not included for fear of reprisal on the job) has worked at Bank of America for 11 years as a customer service associate. He takes phone calls from customers whose needs range from a simple change of address to a family crisis that leaves the caller unable to pay their bills, and he tries to help them solve their problems. And Tony and his coworkers are organizing.
Bank of America has had more complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than any other American financial institution, according to a July report from Mother Jones magazine. And according to Tony, many of those complaints could be fixed with better training for workers, who instead feel squeezed, wanting to provide good service to the customers they talk to daily and on the other hand scapegoated when something goes wrong. Tired of the inadequate training they receive, tired of watching associates get fired for mistakes they didn’t know were mistakes, tired of feeling like they’re hurting customers rather than helping them, a group of around 40 workers got together to try to make, in Tony’s words, a positive change.
“We started the group because we were tired of seeing good people walked out,” Tony says. “It’s tough when you’ve got to work in an environment where they tap you on the shoulder, say ‘Can you come to a meeting?’ and as you walk away, another manager walks up to your desk with a box and starts packing your stuff. If you look over your shoulder, you see them packing your stuff as you walk away. And we all sit there in shock saying ‘What did they do?’”
He continues, “When we’re not trained properly it’s hurting the customer, it’s hurting us. What’s sad is that, when we’re not trained properly our mistakes tend to favor the bank, when we’re trained properly we don’t favor the bank. Some people feel that the bank would rather us not be trained because the money they make off of that is in their favor.”
For example, he says, associates received just a brief training on doing balance transfers in the computer system that they use to manage customers’ accounts. For a while, he wasn’t aware that at the end of the call, a disclosure statement would pop up that was to be read to the customer, a legal statement of how the interest would accrue and what the fee would be for the transfer. Instead, he says, they were told that they should never end a call until the customer is finished, so if the customer ended the call, the next call would come in without the disclosure ever appearing. One of his coworkers, he says, was fired when the quality control department, which listens to two recorded calls from each worker each month to make sure they’re doing their jobs correctly, caught her not reading the disclosure. “This disclosure where the customer can say ‘I don’t want a 4% fee,’ this favors the bank when we don’t read it to them,” he says. “You’ve already got the balance transfer, we can’t do anything about the fee.”
Another person, he says, was fired for taking a hold off of a deposited check at the request of a manager. The managers, he notes, get the same training on the system as the associates, but often have even less time to pay attention to them.
Tony worries that the computer-based trainings they do receive are inadequate. Instead of a class where they might be able to ask questions, he says, they get computer-based trainings that they are often pushed to rush through in less time than the training says it will take. Additionally, he says, “The first thing it does is tell you ‘here’s what the training is about, acknowledge you’ve taken it and you know the subject matter.’ To get into the course to learn about the subject matter you have to click a button that says we know about the subject matter. After you take the course, if you don’t understand it, they go ‘Well you learned about it, you clicked that button.’ There’s no way to take the course unless you acknowledge it. We feel that’s their way of saying it’s on you now. It’s not the bank, you acknowledged you know it, so you do it wrong, that’s your fault.”
The training they do get, he says, is often about how to “deepen the relationship,” with the customer. “Deepening the relationship is a nice word for selling you something,” he says. Instead of upgrading a customer’s credit card, for instance, they are pushed to open a new card, one which might have a higher interest rate than their existing card. According to Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, this process could violate the Truth in Lending Act, which prohibits “unsolicited issuance” of a credit card.
“Deepening the relationship” means something different, perhaps, to Tony than it does to the bank higher-ups. He says, “I once sat in a training was about selling more credit cards, how to ‘deepen that relationship,’ using what the customer says as a tool to sell them this new credit card. One of the associates in the meeting says, ‘This woman’s overdrawn, she’s told me she’s unemployed, I can’t sell her a credit card, she can’t afford to pay any of her bills now, that’s going to hurt her.’ The manager said ‘How do you know she doesn’t need the credit card to buy milk or formula? This could be just right at the right time. Sell her the credit card, it isn’t our responsibility if she can’t pay it.’”
“That’s the kind of thinking that sunk this economy,” Tony adds.
With the help of the Committee for Better Banks, a labor-community coalition that includes Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN), Make the Road New York,New York Communities for Change (NYCC) and the Communications Workers of America union (CWA), Tony’s group started a petition on Coworker.org this June. The petition calls for “independent, federally-guided training be implemented immediately, for employees and managers alike.”
Tony and his coworkers are not the first Bank of America employees to worry that they are being pushed to do wrong by their customers. As David Dayen reported for Salon in June of 2013, former employees testified that they were denied training on mortgage procedures under federal programs, given bonuses for putting accounts into foreclosure, and pressed to lie to customers. Tony says, “Maybe they’re like us, maybe certain things were left out because it favored the bank. As long as managers and site leaders are making their quotas, making their numbers, maybe that’s all they care about.”
“I look at Bank of America and like I said I’ve worked there for years, I see them, they’re selling things off left and right, they’re selling branches in Michigan, they’re selling branches in Maine, we’re shrinking the bank,” Tony continues. “I wonder if they’re shrinking the bank to pay the bills and to make the bank look good? Because it’s all about profit and money and we have to return to the shareholders. Do I think shareholders really care if the customers get burnt? No, I really don’t. They’re more concerned with the return on their stock. Maybe if banks listened to their employees and listened to their customers, it would be much better world.”
They began organizing with the idea of getting better at their jobs, being better able to serve their customers, and Tony says that though it’s slow, they are seeing some results. No one has acknowledged their petition, though he says he’s overhead remarks from higher-ups about their organizing, but after the workers took their yearly “associate engagement survey,” the Human Resources department sent someone to look into their complaints and one site leader was removed. This survey was given after about forty people had been let go for things that Tony says they’d never have done if they were trained properly.
Once the workers began standing together to try to solve their problems, Tony says, there have been fewer firings and somewhat better communication, though information about practices still too often comes from other associates who have been reprimanded for doing something wrong and who share that information.
Tony hopes that if workers and customers stand up for each other, they can change the banking industry.“Our customers are all our families, our friends, our communities, this country is in a dire situation because so many systems, of which banking is one, are failing them, because banking has become more about greed,” he says. “This is all of us together trying to make a better situation and until we all come together this isn’t going to change.” |
|
|
|
Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:48 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
"Bank of America has had more complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than any other American financial institution, according to a July report from Mother Jones magazine. "
What protections will American have from abusive bank tactics if McConnell has his way? |
|
|
|
Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:50 am |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Political Talk
