The loan sharks have been circling the good ship U.S.S. Arkansas once again, looking for easy prey, but this time they've been driven off thanks to leaders like this state's governor and, improbably enough, state Senator Jason Rapert, who again demonstrated that even a blind hog will come up with an acorn now and then.
A bill to crack down on predatory lenders in this state didn't muster enough votes to clear the Arkansas House on its first two tries, but a day later, Senate Bill 658 picked up 20 votes in the affirmative column to pass 68 to 6. Hell's bells, hooray and an unqualified yeehaw!
SB658 was aimed at the heart of financial bloodsuckers like CashMax, which charges interest that can amount up to 280 percent a year. That's according to the federal government's Truth in Lending standards, but CashMax argues that it's only collecting handling fees for services rendered and, besides, if folks want to sell themselves into financial servitude for life, that's nobody's business but their own. Even though this state's constitution explicitly limits interest to 17 percent a year, no matter what CashMax chooses to call it. The best response to such illogic may have been delivered by a Republican named Abe Lincoln, who long ago asked: If you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs does the dog have? And he answered: Still four. Because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one. Case closed.
This battle has been fought before, just as it doubtless will be fought again. For loan sharks never give up, and neither should the voters of this state. Back in long-ago 2008, an Arkansas attorney general named Dustin McDaniel got this state's Supreme Court to order these predators to cease operating in the hospitable waters of our small, wonderful state. But so far the current attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, has not taken a public stand on this burning issue. Which brings to mind something Edmund Burke, the late great English statesman, once said: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
In place of Arkansas' constitutional limits, some will still charge whatever the market will bear and maybe then some, if they can get away with it.
Eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty, and it's a safe bet this swarm of loan sharks will be back to recruit a new crew of suckers they can milk and politicians they can exploit. These are dangerous waters, for here there be dragons. And on occasion they can as assume human form. Which is why it will remain important, indeed vital, to examine them closely.
Editorial on 04/03/2017