Watch This Congressman Plagiarize A Lobbyist On Payday Loans
2/18/2016
WASHINGTON -- Good lawmakers borrow, great lawmakers steal. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) is a great lawmaker.
At a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week on new rules intended to rein in abusive forms of payday lending, Scott couldn't seem to stop praising the industry, using language that sounded, well, bizarre. He bemoaned over-regulation by two agencies that don't actually oversee payday lenders. He said such "small-dollar" loans were "highly transparent" with "built-in controls to limit the use" -- products so good, they're designed to prevent people from using them.
And then Scott gave away the game.
"They've all received positive feedback from our borrowers," Scott said.
As a member of Congress, David Scott doesn't have any borrowers. But Richard Hunt, the top lobbyist for the Consumer Bankers Association, represents plenty of companies that do. Scott, it turns out, was basically reading from 2013 testimony that Hunt gave to the Senate without disclosing his source. He was literally plagiarizing a lobbyist. That odd statement about “positive feedback from our borrowers,” was one of several lines Scott seems to have pulled from Hunt’s testimony with minor alterations.
"Highly transparent" and "built-in controls to limit use?" Hunt wrote both before Scott said it. Back in 2013, Hunt argued against tough rules on payday loans by noting that "an estimated 76 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck." Last week, Scott observed that "we have 75 percent -- 75 percent of the American people live paycheck to paycheck."
Another gem. Scott: "They even have a cooling off period so that customers and consumers do not become overly reliant."
Hunt's version: "These products incorporate features such as ... cooling off periods to protect consumers from reliance on the product."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/david-scott-payday-loan_us_56c4e13fe4b08ffac1276db5
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