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Citizens Against Government Waste Names Sen. Dick Durbin November 2023 Porker of the Month
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named on Thursday Nov. 16, 2023 U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) its November 2023 Porker of the Month for trying to take away everyone’s credit card benefits.
In 2010, Sen. Durbin led the effort to pass the Durbin Amendment, which set a limit on fees that banks charge retailers for debit card transactions.
This caused banks and card issuers to lose billions of dollars and forced them to eliminate popular and widely used rewards programs for debit cards.
Now, Sen. Durbin is at it again by proposing legislation that would expand the Durbin Amendment to credit cards. Sen. Durbin’s bill will take away benefits used by tens of millions of consumers across the country, including travel and loyalty reward programs.
The 84 percent of Americans who have a credit card with a rewards program use them to pay for groceries and gas, family vacations and holiday travel. Airline credit card benefits alone paid for 15 million flights and generated $23 billion in economic activity in 2022.
CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “Sen. Durbin’s legislation would significantly increase the government’s control over a competitive and popular marketplace. If enacted into law, it would double down on harmful policies, damage the economy, and be a disaster for consumers.
For trying to take away credit card benefits and rewards, Sen. Durbin was an easy choice for this month’s Porker.”
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the taxpayers.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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