As President Barack Obama champions credit card reform at just about every turn, it raises the question: Where’s Joe?
Vice President Joe Biden has said almost nothing about credit card reform, which Obama made a cornerstone of his weekly radio address and will highlight again at a town hall in New Mexico on Thursday.
Biden is in an awkward position. As a Senator, he was one of the few Democrats who tried to stop some of the credit card reforms his boss is now pushing.
Obama’s sharp tone for credit card companies makes Biden’s silence that much louder. Americans “have a right to not get ripped off by the sudden rate hikes, unfair penalties, and hidden fees that have become all-too common in our credit card industry,” the president said in his weekly address.
Biden spokesman Jay Carney told POLITICO: “The vice president fully supports these reforms.”
But he hasn’t always. Biden voted against a proposal to require credit card companies to better warn consumers of the financial consequences of only paying the minimum payment. (Obama supported it.) He also sided with credit card companies on a bill that made it harder for people to declare bankruptcy – known as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. - Politico Story
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