Wall St. Bill Fight Pits Car Dealers Vs. the Pentagon

While many of the differences that have to be resolved between the House and Senate versions of the financial reform bills involve arcane bank rules and how to handle derivative contracts that very few people actually understand, there is one battle that pits car dealers against the Pentagon and could impact millions of Americans.

Both bills create a powerful new consumer affairs office in the government to enforce rules to make sure that people who get loans understand them and aren't pushed into loans they can't afford. The idea is to prevent the kind of "liar loans" and other mortgages that crashed and burned and resulted in so many foreclosures and helped push the country into recession.

But it goes farther to regulate all kinds of loans and to make sure consumers aren't ripped off by credit card companies, department stores or even the neighborhood payday loan shop.

One of the biggest providers of these personal loans are car dealers and they lobbied furiously to be exempted from the new rules -- arguing they had nothing to do with the financial meltdown and shouldn't be punished with new regulations and forms to fill out.

The House exempted the car dealers but the Senate did not, leaving that hot potato for the conference committee that has to merge the bills.

The Pentagon comes in because officials there started lobbying too and they want the car dealers covered in the bill. That's because they argue that young service members are too frequently ripped off by shady car dealers who set up business near bases and push young soldiers into car loans they can't afford.

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Bob Fuss is CBS Radio News' Capitol Hill Correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

[retm-w]

Looks like the politicians could care less about the men and women in our military, and the American consumer. The almighty lobbyist dollar is more important.

[kansas1946]

Oh yeah, let's leave some of the biggest crooks around, car dealers, out of this regulation. Legitimate car dealers would not have any problems with this legislation.

[tsigili]

If there's anyone who cannot be trusted, it is car dealers.....both new and used. if they can sell you something for way more than it is worth......they will. if they can sell you financing, at much higher rates than anyone else would.....they will.

It is all about the GREED!

[mmvale]

Now that we're finding out the fine print of Obamacare, I am really nervous about what's in this bill. But I know the government will never be acountable for all their spending and wasting of our tax money. We need to demonize institutions so we can control them; that's what is happening all around us.