It’s nice to finally have some heavy firepower on the side of consumer finance protection. Literally:
Car dealers, a well-organized small-business lobby with members in nearly every legislative district, have swarmed the Senate in recent weeks clamoring to be exempt from the legislation’s proposed protections against loan scams. But in a letter released Thursday, a top Pentagon official said soldiers need to be protected from “unprincipled auto lending” so they can concentrate on their primary mission: “protecting our great nation.”
“Soldiers who are distracted by financial issues at home are not fully focused on fighting the enemy, thereby decreasing mission readiness,” Army Secretary John M. McHugh wrote Wednesday to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). Top Pentagon officials don’t usually weigh in on non-military legislation. But they have complained that shady car loans have been particularly harmful to military personnel — often young, inexperienced consumers who have other worries when they walk into car lots near military bases.
Stephanie Mencimer wrote a really good piece last year about the way car dealers routinely scam service members. It’s worth a read. And maybe give Sen Sam Brownback (R–Kansas), sleaze’s biggest defender, a call after you’ve finished it.
