Case in point, Lincoln Chaffee, defeated for the Senate by Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006, and now Whitehouse is putting forward a bill to protect consumers from abusive credit card companies.

Among its provisions in his Consumer Credit Fairness Act:

• Lenders (not just credit cards, but also payday loans, auto loans, layaway, and overdraft charges) would be prohibited from making claims in bankruptcy if their interestrate were more than the yeild of the 30 year bond interest rate +15%.
• The interest rate would be figured including all charges and penalty fees.
• Removal of the means test for bankruptcy that was included in the 2005 “screw the consumer” bankruptcy law.

Electing Democrats make a difference.