You’ve probably heard of the health care lobby, the firearms lobby and the tobacco lobby but did you know that the payday loan industry has a lobby, too? Of course they do. In an article on Myrtle Beach Online, Aaron Gould Sheinin details how politicians, especially Democrats, are getting “plied with contributions”. In fact, it is estimated that the candidates for the upcoming 2008 election have received around $64,000 from the payday lending lobby and that number is growing.

The reasons are as complex as with any other lobby. The businesses are trying to protect their interests against a growing discontent among the public. This is particularly true in South Carolina where there are an abundance of cash advance and payday loan stores and an equally formidable body of opponents, lawmakers and consumer advocates who are trying to get the companies shut down or at least regulated. The latter point is very much the writing on the wall since legislation was passed recently capping interest rates at 36 percent for payday loans to military employees. As soon as that was passed, the seed was planted in the mind of consumer groups to expand that protection to payday loan and cash advance rates unilaterally—a prospect that has lenders understandably terrified.

While the article investigates specific contributions in South Carolina, it illuminates the larger political stage and goings on in congress, particularly with the debate over capping interest rates which has been under deliberation in several other states as well.

Read the full post at Myrtle Beach Online.

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