PRICE FIXING: Blame it on Sen. Durbin

Has your bank saddled you with monthly fees lately? Thank liberal Illinois Sen. Durbin. Have you been faced with higher prices at the register, even though Durbin passed a price fixing amendment against banks and companies handling debit cards? This legislation was supposed to save consumers some money at the register and at the pump. Any of you seen any substantial savings? I don't. Thank liberal Illinois Senator Durbin.

I have been tracking this issue for years. Just as debit cards were becoming enormously popular in the U.S., eclipsing credit cards, Durbin basically gutted them by price-fixing the free enterprise system, cutting processing fees (the fee a retailer pays for using the electronic payment networks to process debit card transactions or credit card transactions). After 24 years operating Sen. Jim McClure's North Idaho office, every time we saw the federal government interfering with private enterprise, with their price-fixing, anti-free enterprise solutions, we saw that the consumer like you, me, our neighbors LOST.

That is why I'm writing this, asking buyers to beware of more Durbin price fixing schemes in 2012 and asking you to report any rumblings of additional price fixing to our Idaho Senators Crapo and Risch, and your first district Congressman Raul Labrador. Thankfully our free market Senators Crapo and Risch voted against Sen. Durbin and for free enterprise. Thank you, senators!

Matter of fact, this might be a very good year to ask our senators to start a repeal of this bogus Durbin price-fixing legislation, which hurts consumers but benefits the large retailers, many of whom are headquartered in Durbin's state of Illinois. Coincidence?

Idahoans, keep a watchful eye out for what havoc this Illinois senator will wreak on the American public in 2012. He speaks to protect the consumer, but the cash registers show he is hurting the consumer.

RUTHIE JOHNSON

Hayden Lake