To be sure, credit card debt is a growing problem for all age groups. As credit card use and debt has dramatically increased over the past decade, it has become a leading contributor to bankruptcy filings. Over 640 million credit cards distributed by more than 6,000 credit card issuers are currently in circulation, more than two for every man, woman, and child in America.[i]

Between 1980 and 2005, the amount that American consumers charged to their cards grew from an estimated $69 billion per year to more than $1.8 trillion. The average American household has over $9,300 worth of credit card debt. By comparison, the median household income was about $46,000 in 2005.[ii] Taken together, if the average American household were to try to pay off its debt in a year’s time, approximately one day’s pay of every work week would go to the credit card companies. With so much of Americans’ potential savings going every month to pay off consumer debt, the drag on our national economy is immense.

Kentucky ranks ninth nationally in bankruptcy rates, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.[iii]

In particular, the growth of consumer credit card debt has hit young Americans hard. Perhaps that is because credit card companies so aggressively market their cards to students. Lenders’ tactics have been so aggressive that at least a dozen states have introduced bills to regulate their activities, including the Kentucky legislature, though few have cracked down on the practice.[iv] Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation, estimates that credit card issuers have paid approximately $1 billion to the 300 largest universities for the rights to set up shop on college campuses.[v] In this environment, student credit card debt balances increased by 24 percent from 2001 to 2005.[vi]

As mentioned above, Senate McConnell and his Bluegrass Committee PAC have raised a significant amount -- $535,000 – from finance/credit and commercial banking interests.

Senator McConnell has consistently voted against the interests of consumers with regard to credit card disclosure, including an amendment offered during the bankruptcy bill debate that would have required credit card companies to disclose the duration of a cardholders payback period if minimum payments only were made.[vii] McConnell also voted against an amendment offered during the bankruptcy bill debate that would have required bankruptcy judges to weigh additional circumstances in bankruptcy hearings. This provision would have taken into account situations like one recent case in which a credit card company had issued a non-cosigned seventh credit card to an individual who is under 21 years of age and who is employed below the poverty level.[viii]