I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore…

Really.  I am.  Now you may think that this could well be a normal state of affairs for me, considering that I serve as Sojourners’ Director of Policy and Advocacy.  But honestly, some issues just get under my skin, while others can roll off me like water off a duck’s back.  This is one of the former.

Financial reform.  I think that most people probably roll their eyes and wonder how much of a difference this will really make, or could have made, and will it really make a difference in my life.  Will it really make a difference?  Is there really a way to rein these bad actors in?

Yesterday, I watched a video on YouTube where a young woman, Jackie Ramos, tells her story of how she was fired from her job in Customer Assistance at Bank of America because she reversed too many service charges and fees for customers who were hurting.  She also talks about a program that allows people to move into paying their Bank of America credit card debt back like an installment loan.  But the people who really needed to be able to do this in order to pay off their debt could never qualify for it because they have too little disposable income.  So why do they have the program?  PR?  So that they can point to it and say they are consumer friendly???

So that was yesterday.  Today, I learn that Melissa Bean, a member of Congress from Illinois (the state I recently moved here from), is going to introduce an amendment to the Consumer Financial Protection Act that would preempt the right of states to have stronger financial regulations than the federal government.  So the states that have regulated payday loans?  Too bad.  If your laws are more stringent than the federal law, you are just out of luck.  And this is for every area under the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Apparently Melissa Bean is the banking industry’s new best friend.  Campaign contributions?  Can’t tell you that I’ve looked at them, but if she hasn’t gotten them in the past, she can certainly count on them in the future.  But why would she carry water for these folks?  Because her district will be better off with weaker consumer financial protection than they enjoy right now?

I hope the folks in Zion hear about this.  Or Round Lake Beach.  Or Antioch.  These are all communities in her district where there are significant pockets of rural poverty.  But I’m sure that the businesspeople who live in Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Hoffman Estates and Schaumberg will be thrilled — so long as it means the banks that they run and the financial institutions they work for are allowed to continue the outrageous practices that got us in this economic mess in the first place.  But apparently, Melissa Bean has their backs — if you do get regulation, I’ll make sure that those pesky payday loan regulations that were enacted in Illinois no longer apply.

And for me, that’s where all this gets personal.  I was a pastor in Melissa Bean’s district — the poor, not the rich part of the district.  I also worked with other people of faith to end the usurious practices of the payday loan industry in Illinois, and low income people in Illinois are better for it.  And it wasn’t easy.  In fact, it was one of the hardest issues I ever fought for, because people in the “financial services industries” (read “payday lenders”) have more money than God.  Ok, well maybe that expression is theologically suspect, but you get my point.  Whenever a vote got close, the industry would call in the masses, hiring every for-profit lobbyist in the State Capitol and pay them to kill the bill.  At one point, I found out they had hired one lobbyist for every 2 members of the Illinois House of Representatives; there are 118 House members and they had hired 60 lobbyists.

Thankfully, Illinois has more than one representative.  As I was writing this, I learned that Representative Mike Quigley is going to introduce an amendment that will bring more transparency to the home mortgage loan modification process so that consumers will be told the reasons why they have been denied for a loan modification, and the Treasury Department would be required to post the eligibility criteria for the loan modification program online so that consumers will be able to know up front whether or not they will qualify.  More transparency and more information could equal more families staying in their homes this Christmas, or remaining in their homes next Christmas.  Thank God for Mike Quigley.

So now maybe you understand why I get mad.    But maybe you also understand why I get up every morning and come to work and get frustrated, and sometimes I go to the Hill and come home with sore feet.  I do it because at the end of the day, as messy as it is, democracy works.  Not perfectly, not cleanly, but eventually.  So when I say I’m not going to take it anymore, I’m not.  I’m going to stand up and I’m going to fight, and I’m going to push for financial reform that is not only good economically, but in line with our moral principles and obligations to one another.   If you want to join me, click here to take action now.

Rev. Jennifer Kottler is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Sojourners.  A long-time advocate for justice, Jennifer has served in advocacy ministry for more than seven years through her work at Protestants for the Common Good (Chicago IL), the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, and the Chicago Jobs Council.