I've heard a lot of bitching about Chris Dodd and how he's always
taken sides with the banks.

Now he introduces legislation to keep credit card companies from
jacking rates ahead of new laws going into effect and guess who shows
up to save the day?

The Republicans!!!

Republican senators on Wednesday blocked an effort to debate a bill
that would prevent credit card companies from raising interest rates
ahead of new regulations coming into force next year.

The move angered congressional Democrats who were pushing for an
emergency freeze on credit card rates.

"I’m extremely disappointed that the financial health of millions of
American taxpayers has been completely brushed aside by a handful of
Wall Street banking interests in the US Senate," Rep. Betsy Markey
(D-CO) said, as quoted in the Coloradoan.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who heads the Senate Banking Committee, had
authored a bill that would have prevented credit card issuers from
hiking interest rates ahead of a new law coming into effect in
February that restricts how and when rates can be raised.

Earlier this year, Dodd wrote and passed through the Senate the Credit
Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which
requires credit card issuers to give customers advance notice before
hiking rates and fees.

That bill comes into force in February. But, as news sources reported
earlier this year, credit card companies took advantage of the delay
to hike interest rates before the bill became law.

Dodd's latest bill would freeze credit card rates where they are now
until the new law comes into effect next year. It would also require
credit card companies to review all interest hikes going back to the
beginning of 2009 to see if customers were overcharged.

But when Dodd asked for the Senate's unanimous consent to discuss the
bill, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MI) "objected on the behalf of several of
his GOP colleagues, preventing debate," reports The Hill.

"Knowing that the Credit CARD Act would finally protect consumers from
these abuses, the industry has tried to make one last grab for their
customers' pocketbooks," Dodd said Wednesday.

"The reason we allowed a gap period between the passage of the
legislation and the imposition of the regulations or the statutory
requirements was because the industry came to me and said, you know
senator, we're going to need some time to administer, to change how we
provide these kinds of benefits to people. So would you give us a
little window here to operate?" Dodd said.

"Unfortunately they've taken that window and used it as a way to jam
in on the consumers of this country," Dodd said.

A Rasmussen poll released Tuesday shows that about half of Americans
-- 50 percent -- saw their credit card interest rates go up in the
past six months.