Letter to the Editor - Keep rules on stopping predatory lending

Editor,

Whenever people complain about politics, I want to ask them “When was the last time you directly tried to change things?” American democracy, after all, depends on citizens getting involved and letting their leaders know what they want.

There’s a great opportunity to do that right now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning to roll back rules that would have guarded consumers against the worst and most predatory practices in the payday loan industry. In Montana the products these lenders sell are illegal, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to trap us in online loans. These rules have strong, bipartisan support, but the new director of the CFPB wants to do favors for payday loan sharks no matter what.

You can help stop this by submitting a comment to the CFPB, from now until May 15. It’s a great way to let the government know how you feel, and tell the CFPB that putting big business over the little guy has consequences. This kind of thing is what democracy is all about. Add your name at http://stopthedebttrap.org/.

Katie Sutton

Billings