Lunk................better watch out!

**RaginCajun** · 05-19-2014, 09:11 AM

Looks like the Obama administration is commencing "Operation Choke Point!"

**Hoggage_54** · 05-19-2014, 10:21 AM

**Euroholic** · 05-19-2014, 10:23 PM

What are they doing op?

**lovbyts** · 05-19-2014, 11:16 PM

According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal initiative now known as 'Operation Choke Point' is an outgrowth of the President's Financial Fraud Task Force, established by President Obama by Executive Order in 2009. It also appears to have been kicked off in secret by the Department of Justice, FDIC, and the CFPB in early 2013 without the requisite statutory authority. Officials at the Department of Justice have withheld information about the program from Congress, though they have eagerly shared details with federal financial institution examiners authorized to supervise and discipline the nation's banks and related financial institutions.
On August 22, thirty-one members of Congress sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg , requesting a briefing of Congressional staff members on the project, the details of which were so obscure they did not yet know it had obtained the status of a federal initiative and was called 'Operation Choke Point.'

In the letter, which was organized by Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), the members of Congress stated "[i]t has come to our attention that the DOJ and the FDIC are leading a joint effort that according to a DOJ official is intended to 'change the structures within the financial system...choking [online short term lenders] off from the very air they need to survive.' "

"We are especially troubled by reports that the DOJ and FDIC are intimidating some community banks and third party payment processors with threats of heightened regulatory scrutiny unless they cease doing business with online lenders," the letter read. "As a result, many bank and payment processors are terminating relationships with many of their long-term customers who provide underserved consumers with short-term credit options," it continued.

The members of Congress warned Holder and Gruenberg that these actions were undertaken by their respective agencies without statutory authority. "Your actions to 'choke off' short-term lenders by changing the structure of the financial system are outside your congressional mandate," they wrote. "With the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress acknowledged the need for short-term credit products and did not try to limit online lender's or storefront operators' ability to offer such products."

Obama's 'Operation Choke Point' Seeks to Destroy Sectors of Private Lending Industry