While the media has been zeroed in on hyping the House vote on banning Syrian refugees, which 47 Democrats voted for, creating a veto proof majority and feeding into the terrorist’s meme, the House Democrats, 88 of them including the head of the DNC Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schults (D-FL), voted with 244 Republicans to allow racial discrimination in car buying.
From Zach Carter at Huffington Post:
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.
Eighty-eight DEMOCRATS, a good many from liberal states like California and minorities themselves, just voted to allow car dealerships to discriminates against minorities. What were they offered by the lobbyists? How much money was filtered into their campaigns? The Democratic Party needs a revolution, starting with the removal of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as head of the DNC.
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