- Dear Congress: ARE YOU CRAZY?????
- A Taxing Taste Of Things To Come
- Florida Set for Automatic Job Loss
- Congressman Latta Requests Hearing on Impacts of Cap and Trade
- Brian Rooney Signs Taxpayer Protection Pledge in Congressional Race
- Friday Afternoon Giggle (CFA Site »)
-
Senate Health Bill Raises Taxes
On Special Needs Kids and Their Families - "Stimulus" Reporting Lacks Logic...No Kidding (CFA Site »)
- Why Isn't the SEIU Telling Their Members About Their Failing Pensions? (AWF Site »)
- House Financial Services Committee Passes Ron Paul's Audit the Fed Amendment (CFA Site »)
Friday, November 20, 2009
-
How Does the Reid-Obama Health Bill
Raise Taxes on Your Current Health Plan? - ATR and CFA Endorse House GOP "Doc Fix" Alternative
- CFA and ATR Support GOP "Doc Fix" Alternative (CFA Site »)
- Former Union Organizers Say Tactics Induce Psychological Trauma (AWF Site »)
- ATR Breakdown of Senate Health Bill
- Conrad Reynolds Signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in AR Senate Race
Thursday, November 19, 2009
-
Senate Health Bill Breaks
Obama's $250,000 Tax Promise -
BREAKING: Full List of Tax Hikes
In Senate Democrat Health Bill - Senate Healthcare Bill Uses the Term “Tax” 183 Times
-
Yet Another Obama Appointee
Is a Tax Hypocrite - New House Dem Savers Tax Would Be Equivalent to Doubling Cap Gains Tax (ASA Site »)
-
Tax Pledge Alert:
Vote for Cloture on Motion to Proceed
Is Violation of Tax Pledge - CFA to House: Oppose the "Doc Fix" Boondoggle
- SEIU's Takes Aim At... Boy Scouts? (AWF Site »)
- Will Sen. Reid Let Us Read the Bill?
- Will We Get to Read the Bill? Reid to Unveil Health Bill - Timing of Procedural Vote Unclear (CFA Site »)
- ATRF Analysis: Reform Busines Entity Classifiction Rules
- Unions & Health Bureaucrats Gang Up To Deny Treatment
- The FCC's War On Freedom
- Sen. Cornyn Stands Up for Union Transparency (AWF Site »)
- 2009 State Tax Trends: Overview of Tax Changes and Spending Habits
-
ATR Will Rate a Vote Against
Moving to Proceed to Reid Health Bill - Is another Tax Hike Brewing in Tallahassee this year?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
- Executive Director Discusses SEIU Investigation on Sirius XM Show, The Wilkow Majority (AWF Site »)
-
Pelosicare's Problem:
It Doesn't Fix Anything! - DC Launches "Education" Campaign on New Bag Tax
- Ed Morrissey Interview on ATR & AWF Call for SEIU Investigation Today at 3:30pm EST
- High Taxes Lead to Decreased Revenue in Chicago
- First Hand Experience With The Public Option
- ATR and CFA Join Sen. Thune in Calling for End of TARP Bailout
-
Advice to Departing Dems:
What to do After You Lose Your Seat - "Stimulus" Fuzzy Math of the Day: No Hope for Michigan in "Stimulus" Plan
- SEIU’s California Fraud Provides Glimpse into World with EFCA (AWF Site »)
- The Damage to Small Businesses
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
- ATR Endorses "Health Savings Account Expansion Act of 2009"
- Minnesota Budget Shouldn’t be Based on Money Politicians Hope to Have
- CFA to House: Vote "Yes" on TARP Accountability Bill
- ATRF Analysis of Administration Proposals to “Reform the U.S. International Tax System”
- The Money Hole
- 75,343 Bogus jobs 'created or saved' by the so-called "Stimulus"
- ATR and CFA to House: Pass the TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Report On Obamacare
- ATR and AWF Call for the Investigation of SEIU President Andy Stern
Monday, November 16, 2009
-
ATR Supports H.R. 3905,
"The Estate Tax Relief Act of 2009" - ATR and CFA Support the "Protect Taxpayers from ACORN Act"
Friday, November 13, 2009
- Stimulus: A Picture is Worth a Thousand... Jobs? (ASA Site »)
- Global Flat Tax Revolution (ASA Site »)
- Global Flat Tax Revolution
- Stimulus: A Picture is Worth a Thousand... Jobs?
- A Red-Ink Train Wreck: The Real Fiscal Cost of Government-Run Healthcare (ASA Site »)
-
A Red-Ink Train Wreck:
The Real Fiscal Cost of Government-Run Healthcare
Thursday, November 12, 2009
- No Time for Obama to Stall on Trade Agenda
- Does “Net Neutrality” Violate The First Amendment?
- “[C]arbon credits won't matter” Says Senator Vitter (R-La.)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
- Global Warming Has Brought on A New Ice Age!
-
Outline of House GOP Alternative
To Pelosi-Rangel-Obama Health Bill - Union Cost Increases in Dem. Healthcare Bill Raises Hospital Costs by $27 Billion (AWF Site »)
- ATR Testimony for Senate Hearing on Climate Change Legislation: Considerations for Future Jobs
- Tom Cox, AR Senate Candidate, Signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
- Job Losses Continue Despite False Claims and Broken Promises from White House
- Union Cost Increases in Dem. Healthcare Bill Raises Hospital Costs by $27 Billion
- Berlin Wall Falls: 20th Anniversary
- Tennessee candidate Lou Ann Zelenik Signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
- Why We Need To Regulate Big Google
- Senate Budget Staff: House Dems' Fully Implemented Health Bill to Cost $3 Trillion
Monday, November 9, 2009
- Obama Lied, His Tax Pledge Died
Friday, November 6, 2009
7-11 Demands That Congress
Raise Slurpee Prices
From Ryan Ellis on Thursday, October 8, 2009 9:37 AM 
Well, not quite—but it got your attention. Recently, 7-11 delivered 1.6 million petitions to Congress demanding that 7-11 be allowed to charge extra to customers who use credit and debit cards. Never mind that this is asking Congress to rip up a contract 7-11 has signed agreeing not to do this to us.
What’s the issue?
Whenever we go to the store or online to make a purchase, we often choose to use a credit or debit card. These aren’t free. Some company has to process these transactions, make sure everyone gets paid, etc. In order to pay for this convenience, merchant card companies charge the businesses that accept cards—usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.75% of the cost of whatever you and I buy (known as an “interchange fee”).
Naturally, the businesses selling things to us would like to be able to pay less for this service. Paying less for the same service is certainly attractive. I would like to pay less for my NFL Sunday Ticket package on DirecTV, but that's what it costs.
7-11 is trying to get around this little problem of reality by getting Congress to do their negotiating for them. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is marking up a bill this week, H.R. 2382, the “Credit Card Interchange Fees Act of 2009.” It would for the first time use the force of law to nullify valid contracts negotiated in good faith between the merchant card industry and retailers. The most pernicious action would be to allow businesses to charge us more for the privilege of using a merchant card (a practice we’re protected against by the current merchant card contract). The hope is that this Congressionally-obtained bargaining chip can be used to negotiate a lower interchange fee.
The retailers and Congressman Frank will tell you they want to be able to charge less to those who pay with cash. But unless Congress is going to get into the business of setting the price of everything from lattes to licorice, the reality is this will leave the base price the same and become a surcharge for card-swiping customers. The practical effect of this legislation is that everything we buy could cost more if we use a credit or debit card rather than cash.
You might remember that when preening Congressmen bash merchant card companies this week.
Comments
So wait a minute--if I don't like paying for something I voluntarily buy, I can get Congress to re-write the terms of my purchase? Cool. I guess I can start with the rent I pay, maybe my iTunes purchases, and then move on to my grocery bill. After all, I need the latter to live, right? Isn't this was Congress is trying to do with health insurance, too?
>> Not Anonymous Tuesday, October 6, 2009 11:08 AM
Keeping with your analogy, what if in addition to your Sunday Ticket you had to buy the MLB channel, the NBA channel, College Volleyball, The Cricket Channel, the Asian Golf Channel and the Pakistani Horseshoe Throwing Channel? And you can gett all of those wonderful channels for only $25,000 a year? Do you still want Sunday Ticket? Ordering just Sunday Ticket is no longer an option. That's what Visa and MasterCard call the "honor all cards" rule. This is just one of the dozens of problems around credit card fees--the most agregious being that they are monopolies and prices are dictated rather than allowing free market forces.
>> CommonSense Tuesday, October 6, 2009 1:19 PM
If the Sunday Ticket Package made me buy all those other things, I would have a choice. I could either suck it up and buy all the other crap because I like the NFL so much, or I could not buy the uber-package at all. What is not an acceptable free-market solution is for me to go to Congress and force DirecTV to sell me the package I want under my terms and prices.
>> Not Anonymous Tuesday, October 6, 2009 5:25 PM
Hey Grover...how much are you taking from the cards and banks to take THIS position????
>> You Kidding Me? Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:17 AM
You Kidding Me?, What position do you have a problem with? The free-market, separation of government and business position? Or the keep-contracts-consistent-and-valid-rather-than-change-them-on-a-whim position? Seems pretty consistent with ATR's beliefs to me. The government should not have any say on what businesses charge for anything. They should only enforce the contracts made between 7-11 and the credit card companies.
>> TCH Thursday, October 8, 2009 10:34 AM
Stores should be able to set different prices for cash versus credit card if they so desire.
>> Miki Ellis Thursday, October 8, 2009 12:53 PM
This article misses a quite obvious economic principle. If stores are allowed to impose a surcharge on the customer for use of a credit card, this will result in a net decrease in costs imposed on the stores. This will enable stores to charge less for their products, passing the savings on to the customers. At worst, this plan is a break-even for customers. More likely, it will result in savings for customers, since they will have a disincentive to use credit cards. So the customers that switch to cash will get the benefit of lower prices without the cost of any surcharge. The only ones that lose are the credit card companies, which will see diminishing use of their product.
>> Cool Joe Thursday, October 8, 2009 1:10 PM
I think that many are missing the point of this post. It is not about whether 7-11 should be able to charge more to people using credit cards or not, it is about the importance of consistency in contracts and the government’s role in enforcing them. 7-11 is under contract to not charge more for credit card transactions (I am unsure from this post if that contract is gov imposed or one that was freely entered into). Now 7-11 wants to use the guns of government to nullify that contract and make a new one. This would render contracts meaningless if the gov can come in at any time and change them for favored businesses. 7-11 should be able to set its prices however it wants, but it must also honor contracts that it voluntarily agreed to.
>> TCH Thursday, October 8, 2009 4:42 PM