President Obama Speaks in Birmingham
More than a thousand people gathered Thursday afternoon at Lawson State Community College in Birmingham to hear a speech by President Barack Obama. He used the visit to promote ideas he says will help working families and to tout proposed new rules on payday lenders. While the remarks were about policy, for many people, the fact they heard a sitting president speak in Birmingham represented a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The room felt like a campaign appearance just lacking the signs and placards. To call the audience friendly would be an understatement. The woman introducing the president found her words drowned out by cheers.
President Obama took the stage and settled behind the podium. He acknowledge the local dignitaries and then offered a quip for the local crowd.
“I’m here, Birmingham, to just acknowledge that I didn’t have UAB making it out of the first round,” said Obama.
It’s a reference the to NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
The president’s stated reason for coming to Birmingham was to draw attention to proposed rules for payday lenders announced Thursday by the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau. These businesses offer small loans to consumers for a fee. But government research found most loans have to be renewed, resulting in escalating fees that in some cases are more than the original loan. Obama says millions of people take out payday loans, especially in Alabama.
“Here in Alabama there are four times as many payday lending stores as there are McDonalds,” Obama said. “Think about that.”
He says the suggested rules are intended to keep borrowers from being trapped in a cycle of debt. Among the proposals is a requirement that lenders must determine a borrower’s ability to repay before issuing the loan.
“If you’re lending to somebody, knowing they can’t pay you back, and you’re going to put them on the hook and just squeeze them harder and harder and harder and take more and more money out of them, you’re taking advantage of them,” said Obama.< ?p>
Consumer advocacy groups cheered the plans. Payday lenders did not. Max Wood is a spokesman for the industry group Borrow Smart Alabama. He says the guidelines as they are now are too restrictive. They’d force most lenders to close.
“We just don’t want to be put out of business and we don’t want the consumer to lose access to credit,” said Wood.
He says the industry is already regulated and they receive few complaints.
As people stream out of the building after President Obama’s speech, they’re not talking about payday lending so much as what they just experienced. Rachel Bearden graduated from Lawson State Community College last year and she watched the event from the stage. She sat behind the president.
“I was just speechless,” said Bearden. “It was just…didn’t even seem real.”
Andrea Pincham-Benton is a native Chicagoan and met Obama before he became president. She says she’s proud of his accomplishments and called the speech superb. But the payday loan discussion left her with a bigger idea.
“I think that one of the things that we need to educate out children on is money management. We’re consumers.”
She says President Obama’s words are helpful, but it’s individual action that’s needed.
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