Yesterday I asked Joe to say it wasn’t so. I couldn’t believe he voted with the Republicans to keep refugees out of our country. Well, it was so. When my wife told me about the vote, she wasn’t specific, and I thought she was talking about this, mostly because I couldn’t conceive of him voting against the refugees.
I was confused because a few days ago I got an email from a prominent consumer attorney telling me that it looked like Joe was going to vote to enable racial discrimination in car loans. I wrote to his chief of staff, forwarding the attorneys email and my own hopes that Joe wouldn’t do it. So that legislation was on my mind, and I was still assuming Joe was a safe vote against the unspeakable refugee legislation. The car loan legislation is an attack on Elizabeth Warren’s creation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been trying to root out racial discrimination in the auto loan industry:
Most dealerships are authorized to sell cars and make loans to finance the purchase. They send their customers’ financial information to a bank, which then sends the dealer an appropriate interest rate for a borrower with that particular credit profile. But banks also permit dealers to “mark up” the interest rate on the loan to a higher level, and allow the dealership to pocket some of the additional charge.
That, of course, creates incentives for the dealer to charge people higher interest rates. But lawsuits dating back to the 1990s have shown that people of color are more likely to have their interest rates marked up than white borrowers. Black, Latino and Asian-American borrowers also tend to see higher markups than white borrowers.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued regulatory guidance in 2013 instructing companies on how to cope with this phenomenon. Since the markup practice tends to result in overcharging borrowers of color, the CFPB recommended that banks and dealerships ditch the practice. If they didn’t, however, they needed to ensure that borrowers with similar credit profiles weren’t receiving different interest rates due to their race or national origin.
Since issuing the guidance, the CFPB has taken action against Honda and Ally Bank for overcharging borrowers of color, forcing them to return more than $100 million to their customers.
This was apparently too much for banks and auto dealers to handle. They lobbied for a bill that would nullify the CFPB’s regulatory move. The NAACP, the Urban League, the National Council of La Raza, Americans for Financial Reform and other groups opposed the legislation. The Congressional Progressive Caucus urged lawmakers to vote against it, as did Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. President Barack Obama issued a statement saying he “strongly opposes” the bill, but stopped short of a formal veto threat.
None of the opposition was enough to counter two interest groups that wield tremendous power on Capitol Hill. No Republicans voted against the bill to curb the CFPB’s enforcement of anti-discrimination law this week, while 88 Democrats voted in favor. The legislation cleared by a vote of 332 to 96.
Joe was among the 88.
This is troubling for a number of reasons. First, it adds to the disappointment so many of us feel about Joe’s vote on the refugee bill. Second, it illustrates yet again that we Democrats are getting shafted again and again by the people to whom we contribute our money and time. Not a single Republican voted against this legislation, which tells you all you need to know about how bad it is. I get fundraising emails from the DCCC all the time, telling me they need my money to support progressive candidates, and then they recruit the most right wing “Democrats” they can find. It doesn’t surprise me that many Democrats voted for this legislation, but it does surprise me that Courtney did. I’m hoping beyond hope that both of these votes were aberrations, but I’m beginning to fear that he’s been infected with the Beltway virus that seems to get to all Democrats, sooner or later. Joe doesn’t even have the excuse of needing to ward off a right wing challenge. So far as I know, he has no opponent.
Joe is one of the nicest politicians I’ve ever met, and it would be heartbreaking indeed if he were to go over to the Dark Side.
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