Posted By LambChop
Faucahontas has gone off the reservation. Again. This time in her Op-Ed for the Huffington Post, America’s favorite fake Cherokee sweetheart has hijacked a mantra of late: “The poor pay more.”
She cites the report released this week from the OIG of the Postal Service that claims that 68 million Americans (“more than a quarter of all households”) have no bank accounts. She refers to this as being “underserved by the banking system.”
The use of this language is tell-tale and reminiscent of the push to force lower income people into home ownership – a disastrous liberal plan that caused the collapse of the U.S. economy that has still not recovered today.
Warren cites the amount of fees per household paid for check cashing (“$2,412 per household”) but that number also includes payday loans – not a banking fee at all. With this total, she claims: “That means the average underserved household spends roughly 10 percent of its annual income on interest and fees -- about the same amount they spend on food.”
Warren fails to consider the real reasons why most of the underclass does not have bank accounts.
1) They immigrated from other countries where they are culturally suspicious of banks.
2) They have not learned English and do not believe banks serve non English-speaking persons.
3) They are cash only to avoid paying taxes and paying fees.
4) They are off the grid and want to avoid having to use identity documentation usually because their ID is stolen, forged or non-existent.
5) They have existing, abandoned bank accounts that are overdrawn and cannot make a deposit because those funds will be used to cover the overdraft.
6) They have a history of writing bad checks and cannot qualify for a bank account.
And as if her dire warnings about this huge problem that traps poor people at the “bottom of the economic ladder” is not enough, Warren takes is one step further (straight from the liberal housing agenda theme) and blames the ultimate economic bogeyman – the predatory lender.
“Families rely on financial services more than ever, but those who need them most -- who struggle to make ends meet -- too often must contend with sky-high interest rates and tricks and traps buried in the fine print of their loan products.”
Of course this crisis is not an actual emergency. But nevertheless she has a solution. No it’s not free birth control or light rail …it is this: the United States Postal Service would offer banking services. Her ally in this asinine push is the newest regulatory commission created by the Obama administration that apparently does not have enough to do – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). She describes the CFPB as “a cop on the beat that is putting in place commonsense rules to protect consumers and ensure that payday lenders are held accountable when they break the law.”
Opponents of socialism everywhere should tremble at this description of a hazy agency with police powers granted by an authoritarian Executive Branch.
Not only would the Post Office offer bill pay and check cashing services, but “small dollar loans” as well.
What could go wrong?
READ WARREN'S OP-ED HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/coming-to-a-post-office-n_b_4709485.html
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