This was one of the issues Obama campaigned on in his run for president.  The actual legislation originated in both houses of congress under Democratic leadership.  It was determined that the original version would be blocked by a Republican filibuster unless it was weakened, but once that was done to appease certain Politicians who receive an enormous part of their campaign funding from credit card companies, the filibuster threat was withdrawn and it actally gained support from a significant number of Republicans.  Once both houses passed identical legislation, it was sent to President Obama for his signature which he gladly provided.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051103192.html

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-627

H.R. 627:	Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009
111th Congress 2009-2010

-- Edited by PowerStroker on Wednesday 17th of November 2010 07:45:41 PM

I'm glad you and I agree on this issue.  And I think it may help explain some of why I'm a Democrat... I'll elaborate here now. 

I realize most conservatives still have Reagan's voice echoing in their head, especially when he said "The most frightening thing to hear is I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."  This sentiment still resonates in many people, and they believe that the government is some kind of abstract 3rd party that serves no other purpose than to bog them down with taxes, and generally make life more difficult.  That they are somehow "self made" and don't need the government for anything more than providing a military.

Liberals, on the other hand, view the government as not some abstract 3rd party, but as the embodiment of the people's collective will.  Liberals believe that we are not as "self made" as we would like to think we are, and that it is actually private corporations that are the biggest threat to our freedom.  Liberals believe that the government is the ONLY institution which allows the people to express OUR power against the corporate interests that would enslave us all into a life of servitude. 

Now the debate has raged for generations over who is right on the role of government, I think this specific issue of banking regulations, even if it doesn't pull you over to my side, it at least helps you to understand my point of view...

Now let's expand on that notion.  I realize you hate the new healthcare reform law with a passion because you feel as though some of your freedom has been taken away from the government - specifically the freedom to not pay a tax penalty for not purchasing health insurance and the freedom to assume all risks associated in doing so, up to and including bankruptcy and death.  In most cases I would agree with you that such a policy would be an infringement on all of our civil liberties.  Herein lies the problem however...  Prior to the new healthcare reform law, there were 50,000,000 uninsured Americans, by far the largest cause for bankruptcy's in our country were due to medical costs, and everyone who already had their own insurance was subsidizing everyone elses emergency room visits through their taxes.  The revenue shortfalls projected by the Congressional budget office due to this was projected to become by far the largest source of our National budget deficits, and eventually (in our lifetime) consume the entire federal budget leaving nothing left at all - even for the military - which we all know is a priority for Republicans.

I would submit to you, that had we the people, through our government done nothing about healthcare, it would result in much more freedoms being taken away from you down the road.

Lets try this with another issue.  Education finance reform was also signed in to law by President Obama, because WE THE PEOPLE used the power of our government to take the middle man out of the equation, and allow our youngsters to better afford an education without some sleazy banker acting as a middle man and skimming off the top of poor students so the banksters could live a more comfortable life.  I think this is another example of how the only way to stand up to sleazy bankers, is through our collective government power.

There are so many examples of how our lives have been made MORE free by using our collective power.  The problem as I see it though, is when people who don't like government, elect other people who don't like government to run the government.  Those elected officials don't view their role as a champion for the people, and their legislation shows it.  Those politicians don't like the government for many reasons, usually because they ran corporations and made a nice living doing things like skimming off poor students, and then the government stopped them.  Now their role in life is to reduce the size of government and get it off "our" backs.  We call them Republicans.  And it is for this reason I challenged you to name a piece of Republican legislation that had the soul purpose of helping working class people, that the Dems's were against.  We both failed in our challenge to find any such legislation in the last 15 years at least, and this is why.

I was wondering if part of these new banking regulations that were passed included a provision that stopped banks from charging a fee when cashing a check that was drafted from their bank?

I only ask because someone wrote me a check the other day and in the past the bank it was drawn off would want a $10 fee to cash their own check.  This was not the case the other day when I went in to cash the check, and they did not ask me to pay anything to cash their own check.

I got yet another check and the same circumstances above, yet when I cashed it there was no mention of a fee.

Back in the day, unless you had an account at the bank you were trying to cash the check at they would charge a fee. Did not seem to be an issue most recently so I was wondering if anyone knew if that practice was outlawed? It makes sense because if someone writes you a check and you goto their bank to cash it there should not be any fee assessed for them to cash it just because you dont have an account there.

If it is true that this new banking regulation has made that practice of charging a fee to cash checkes issued at their institutuion illegal, then I must tip my hat to Obama once more! As I may have felt some more Democrat love!

Anyone know about this? I don't want to give Obama credit for something he didn't do, but at the same time if he was responsible for this I want to acknowledge it!