Naughty Wingnuts Put Bad Word On Dick Durbin's Wikipedia Page
RUH-ROH. Can you spot it?! The wicked little Internet trolls are fiddling around on their favorite source of Official History, Wikipedia, to try to embarrass Senator Dick Durbin. We have to admit -- it's a little bit mysterious why anyone would want to pick on this rather harmless lefty Illinois Senator who usually ambles around Congress advocating for moderate reforms on poison levels in children's toys and more money for brain-damaged veterans. UNLESS, maybe, it has something to do with Durbin's recent crusade against greedy bank executives?
Probably Wikipedia's gatekeeper-editor wizard-folk can figure this out, but for the moment the only "people" we know for sure that Dick Durbin is pissing off are the giant banks who want to just want to be able to wring a few extra dollars a month from debit card users in peace.
From The Hill:
The Illinois senator sent a letter to Wells Fargo chief John Stumpf on Wednesday, asking for an explanation as to why it is considering adding new fees for debit cards following the announcement of the bank's 21 percent increase in third-quarter profits on Tuesday.
"Your spokesperson’s claim that Wells Fargo needs to charge all its customers an additional monthly fee of more than $3 in order to make up the 'cost' of providing debit cards simply does not add up," Durbin wrote. "Instead of making up costs, your new consumer fee appears to be a plain attempt to increase your profits, even though your bank just reported third-quarter profits that hit a record high."
The new fee, currently being tested by Wells Fargo in five states, is similar to the fee Bank of America announced following the Oct. 1 start of the Federal Reserve's new policy on swipe fees, which cuts the amount banks can collect per transaction to an average of 24 cents from 44 cents.
And of course, there's always the outside chance that it was just our old unemployed hobo friend Rod Blagojevich, on account of being bored and jealous. [ Wikipedia / The Hill ]