Simply outrageous

Marketwatch reports:

Five top Democrats, led by Rep. Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, sent a letter Thursday calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation into whether bank trade associations and individual banks have violated antitrust law by colluding. The letter comes after outrage has erupted over Bank of America Corp.’s announcement earlier this month to charge customers a $5 monthly fee starting January for debit-card-usage. Other big banks are testing debit-card-usage fees in select markets. ... “Statements made by individual banks and their trade associations raise questions about whether some price increases that have occurred this year have actually been coordinated,” the letter says. “This collective pricing activity is harmful to competition and raises serious legal questions.” Rep. John Conyers, Democrat from Michigan and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, also signed the letter, as did Reps. Michael Honda of California, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Raul Grijalva of Arizona. Ellison and Grijalva are co-chairs of the House Progressive Caucus.

As I have pointed out before, what we are seeing here is a repetition of what happened with Obamacare: Obamacare was passed; insurance companies raised premiums and non-insurance companies took charges to cover the additional costs imposed by Obamacare; the President, his Administration, and the Democrats immediately attacked and threatened those companies for taking these actions.

Now, the Dodd-Frank bill has passed; the banks have imposed new debit card fees to cover the additional costs imposed by the Durbin Amendment to that bill; and the President, his Administration, and Democrat thugs in Congress immediately start to attack, threaten, and strong arm the banking industry for taking these actions.

Simply outrageous!