Sen. Dick Durbin: Lobbyists Are Begging Me to Come Up With More Regulations!

Lobbyists are hailing Sen. Dick Durbin for the work he's done creating jobs for lobbyists, according to none other than Sen. Dick Durbin. Via The Examiner's Timothy Carney, here's what Durbin said on the Senate floor yesterday:

"A friend of mine who is a lobbyist downtown in Washington said, 'Durbin, praise the Lord. Come up with some more ideas. This is a full employment amendment. Everybody who is a lobbyist in Washington is working on this amendment. We just love you to pieces.'"

The specific context of the quote was the debate over swipe-fee regulations in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul: Retailers successfully won a legislative skirmish over a provision that gives the Federal Reserve the power to regulate the fees charged to process debit card transactions. Large banks opposed the reform, while retailers like Wal-Mart have argued that the regulated fees will benefit consumers via cheaper prices. But as Slate's Annie Lowrey wrote last week, small businesses may see some gains, but individuals consumers aren't likely to see significant price drops as a result of the law. They are, however, likely to lose existing rewards programs designed to benefit debit card users. Banks will make up the fees they lose by reducing benefits and charging new fees elsewhere.

So some businesses win. Banks lose, but take revenge by killing popular services. And consumers get caught in the middle. And as always, the real winners in multibillion dollar legislative slugfests like this are the lobbyists on both sides. I don't begrudge the lobbyists for taking business when it comes their way. But if politicians (or voters) want to tamp down on industry influence in Congress, as many of them constantly say they do, regulations that stoke industry-on-industry battles like this aren't the way to go.