The Tom Carper story
When we decided to cover the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign so closely earlier this year, it wasn’t just because she was such an interesting candidate, but also because Joe Crowley, the incumbent, was a perfect vehicle to use to tell the story of that wing of the Democratic Party, both at the national and local level.
Primaries are an opportunity for voters to get to know candidates who’ve been around forever but have largely escaped a real examination for years. Both of those things were true for Crowley, but they’re probably even truer for Tom Carper, a Delaware senator and a political institution in the state since the 1970s, who’s now facing a primary challenge from Kerri Harris -- who is endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez.
A close look at the 40-year career of Carper doesn’t just tell the story of the transformation of the Democratic Party, but also of the way that the American economy developed over that period, with Delaware playing a leading role in the deregulatory race-to-the-bottom. For that narrative alone, this tremendous story by Dave Dayen, published tonight, is worth reading.
In last night’s newsletter, I talked about how Duncan Hunter’s indictment was a boost for Ammar Campa-Najjar, his progressive opponent. People seemed interested in that race, so Zaid Jilani and I put a piece together on him, which is here.
And Jim Risen asks: Is Trump above the law?
IT WAS October 1987, and the House of Representatives was debating a bill written by then-Rep. Chuck Schumer that would disclose more information to prospective credit card customers. The legislation would ultimately create the “Schumer box” — the part of a credit card agreement that lists interest rates, terms, and fees in large type.
Liberal Democrats wanted more than just disclosure. Illinois Rep. Levi Annunzio submitted an amendment to limit the allowable interest rate on all U.S. credit cards to 15 percent. A 1978 Supreme Court ruling had rendered state-level interest rate caps useless, allowing lenders to charge 40 percent or more. Some states kept tight rules in place nonetheless, but a few became a Wild West for financial institutions, attracting major companies with an anything-goes regulatory environment.
“This credit card business is the biggest money item these banks have,” thundered Mario Biaggi, a New York Democrat who supported the amendment. “You don’t have real competition among the big banks. They take advantage of the inertia of the consumer.”
With a healthy 257-177 advantage, House Democrats had the numbers to force the federal cap through. But Schumer and his colleagues on the House Banking Committee wanted no part of significantly depressing credit card profits, having struck down this amendment almost unanimously in committee. One of those colleagues, a young Democrat from Delaware, stepped forward to urge a no vote. His name was Tom Carper.
“The bill before us without this amendment is a good bill,” Carper said. “Mr. Annunzio is trying to make a point here, and it’s a point that shouldn’t be lost on us or the banks. But I think it’s premature to try to make that point. We can do a lot of good things with this legislation and a free enterprise competitive system. Let’s let that competition work.”
Carper added that young college graduates and the working poor would not be able to access credit if interest rates were capped. It rehashed a perennial claim from banking industry supporters: You have to let banks gouge their customers, because how else will customers obtain vital services?
Against an alliance of Banking Committee Democrats and pro-business Republicans, the amendment failed. It took two decades for a federal interest rate cap to be debated again, as part of credit card reform legislation called the CARD Act. This time, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would fail to overcome the power of the banking lobby. Among the 60 senators voting no was the senior member from Delaware: Tom Carper. It was still, 22 years later, premature.
For nearly 40 years, banks have found a reliable ally in Carper. Staked with millions in campaign donations, Carper has taken the side of the industry in virtually every policy debate over that period, with the unfortunate side effect of helping to create the conditions for the 2008 financial crisis — and the next one.