Economy & Budget

Today Senator Dick Durbin is reintroducing a critical bill that will cap interest rates on predatory credit. The “Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates Act” is a desperately needed law that will finally crack down on strip mall loan sharks and shady internet lenders alike, but it would also put the brakes on the dirty little secret of the predatory lending industry: big bank payday lending.
 
Some of America’s largest banks, back to record profitability after the bail-outs, have started offering their own customers triple digit interest payday loans with names like “Direct Deposit Advance.” These short term, high interest loans, commonly known as “payday loans” are decimating the bank accounts of some of America’s most vulnerable residents and they must be stopped.

A newlywed couple puts down roots in a growing community by buying a new home. They pay for the home with a conventional mortgage from a large nationwide bank that specializes in mortgage lending.
 
The house that the couple buys was built with the help of a regional bank’s acquisition, development and construction loan to a home builder. The neighborhood is located near a strip mall that was developed with a commercial real estate loan from a local community bank.
 
The shopping center’s occupants -- which include mom-and-pops as well as global restaurant and retail chain stores -- run their businesses with the help of financing, cash management, and payroll services offered by banks of all types and sizes.

We are at a critical point in making our healthcare markets work. The Affordable Care Act takes effect next year, creating new marketplaces for health insurance which hopefully will create an environment of transparency and choice that will spur competition. There are some new tools for federal and state enforcers to police these markets. Never has antitrust and consumer protection enforcement been as necessary, but there is an unfortunate obstacle – a 68 year old antitrust exemption for health insurance – the McCarran-Ferguson Act.

For consumers to receive the full benefits of health care reform, Congress needs to repeal the Act.

Much of the focus in the media and on Capitol Hill recently has been on deficits and budget cuts to domestic and Pentagon spending. Yet, the partisan debates ignore the fact that the best way to get our debt under control is to make the investments that create jobs and get our economy back on its feet. We also clearly need to make changes to our tax system, which has not only ballooned our debt but also played a significant role in the income and wealth disparities that now plague our nation. As Christians and patriotic Americans, we believe the Biblical principle that “from those to whom much is given, much is expected” is a good guideline for setting our priorities on taxes.

The Obama administration’s push for expanded home loan availability to borrowers with weaker credit has rekindled the debate over Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lending practices.
 
This discussion is missing a key element: a candid assessment of FHA’s current financial position. Currently, the agency’s portfolio is riddled with hidden and underpriced risks that, until properly estimated, present a false foundation for debate.

This week House Republicans will introduce the misleadingly titled “Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013.” Touted by Republicans as a new comp time initiative that will give hourly-paid workers the flexibility to meet family responsibilities, it is neither new nor about giving these workers much needed time off to care for their families. The bill rehashes legislation Republicans passed in the House in 1997, some 16 years ago, and that they introduced again in most subsequent Congresses. Its major effect would be to hamstring workers – likely increasing overtime hours for those who don’t want them and cutting pay for those who do.

No one likes balancing their budget. Whether it’s through online banking or the old fashioned routine in your checkbook, the acknowledgement of money rushing out the door is enjoyable for no one. Yet, we all do it. We all make sure that we’re not spending money we don’t have, not pushing ourselves into debt, not running a deficit to meet our daily needs and wants.

Why won’t the president do the same?

Small businesses expect direct decisions and actions from Congress this year. We expect Congress to carry out the people’s business in an orderly fashion. On the surface this seems peripheral to business, and that specific bills or budgets should be the order of the day; however, those bills that come up to Congress that seem to be socially weighted dramatically effect small businesses. Should the government act on banning assault rifles? Maybe, but there is more than the gun industry that is affected by this decision. Many school districts are scrambling to find budgets for additional private security, and one issue facing them is imminent need, and with the assault rifle being viewed as a direct threat, you can bet local authorities are developing budgets and asking for federal assistance to hire companies.

Over the last several years, the American public has been subjected to more of the “sausage making” of U.S. tax policy than at perhaps any other point in our history.

Through a steady procession of fiscal dramas – cliffs and sequesters, budget blueprints and super committees – the inner defects of our nation’s Tax Code have been on display for all to see. And as April 15th approaches, even casual observers just can’t look away from the wreckage.

The temporary “suspension” of the nation’s debt limit expires on May 19, 2013. On that date, the limit will become the amount of debt already incurred. So the secretary of the Treasury will need immediately to revert to the use of his “extraordinary measures” – highly technical authorities granted to him by law, which over the last two decades or so have become unfortunately all too ordinary – to keep the debt subject to limit below the statutory ceiling. The public is not privy to the Treasury’s own internal estimates, and the future is always uncertain; but the best analysis available suggests that the secretary will have run out of tricks by some time in this coming August