As the  New York Times editorial notes, the modest changes urged by the Fed will be fought by the Big Banks tooth and nail, and may well never actually see the light of day no matter how tepid they are in addressing abuse of consumers.  It’s good to be a bank.

If anyone else played the bait and switch game like credit card issuers, they would be wearing an orange jumpsuit.  But banks not only get away with it, but they have the juice to put enough fear into the heart of Congress to potentially kill any hope of reform.

Representative Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who has been pushing the important Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights in Congress, raised the right fears as the Fed proposal was announced. “These rules may be watered down. They might not be put into effect at all,” she scoffed. “The Federal Reserve is not in the Constitution to correct abuses. We are, and there are abusive, abusive, abusive practices going on now.”

The powerful American Banking Association has already signaled its plans to fight the Fed’s rules as a “regulatory intrusion” into the market and warned that eventually it could be the consumers who lose because of changes. But consumers are already losing as their interest rates on the cards suddenly skyrocket, fees appear mysteriously on their bills and even the billing cycles get shortened to make it harder to pay on time.

What’s most striking about the problem is that it’s purely cash and carry.  Banks have the cash, and that’s how they carry Congress.  There’s no question that this is a shocking abuse.  Forget the villainous subprime mortgage brokers, they are pikers compared to what the credit card banks have done to the American public.  And the banks are untouchable.

My fellow citizens, this is the price of democracy today.  And the banks are paying for it.  Remember Senator Sessions and the DataTreasury amendment?  That was pennies compared to this.  Expect the banks to pull out all the stops to make sure that the American consumer never gets an even break.  Even though these changes are relatively trivial, the banks won’t let a camel’s nosehair under the tent.

The price of democracy?  It’s paid for by the banks.