"What do I have to do to get you into this car?"

"How much can you afford to pay every month?"

"My manager's in a good mood."

They're trying to add a couple more car salesman cliches to the ones everybody knows:

"When you take out a car loan - probably the second-biggest financial decision of your life - you don't need a watchdog looking out for you."

"Watch out ... this will cost you a lot more if somebody's representing your interests."

And if you believe those last two statements, allow me to show you this brand new baby - it's got whitewalls and mag wheels, tinted windows, I'll throw in the deluxe sports package along with that ... oh, and we strongly recommend undercoating.

Campaign for America's Future and CREDO have set up a site where you cen send a fax to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd with a simple one- or two-click process, urging them protect American consumers from shady auto loans. And, if you act now, it's absolutely free! (Racing stripe and rustproofing not included with fax.)

It's easy to sound flippant, since everybody knows why we all hate car dealers, but the topic's deadly serious: As we've discussed at length, auto dealer lending practices are a disgrace. A massive, multi-year study showed that African Americans are charged more than whites for the same loans. Auto dealers routinely mark up the loans they offer, without disclosing that information to customers - a practice that costs consumers $20 billion per year and adds an estimated $647 to the cost of each vehicle sold. Auto dealers also play games with "gap insurance" that covers the replacement cost of your vehicle for loan purposes if it's totaled.

Another common car dealer trick is to "sell" a car to a customer by claiming they qualify for a no-interest or low-interest loan, letting them drive away in it, then calling them a week or two later to say the loan fell through. Dealers do this because most customers will have gotten used to the car by then, which means that many of them will accept loan terms that wouldn't been unacceptable at the point of sale.

Car lenders have made a particular point of preying on young soldiers, who are living far from home in great distress. That's why Holly Petraeus, wife of Gen. David Petraeus, is strongly in favor of regulating auto loans. The Petraeus family are hardly known as big lefties ...

Car dealers and their allies love to say they should be exempted from financial reform because they weren't part of the financial crisis. But think about it: Why should auto loans be regulated when they're provided by banks and credit unions, but not when they're provided by auto dealers? That's anticompetitive. What's more, we've already seen that auto dealers sometimes encourage applicants to lie when applying for a loan. If bank auto loans are regulated but car dealer loans aren't, unscrupulous bankers will simply use car dealers as willing minions to make an end run around consumer protection. With auto lending a nearly $1 trillion market, the last thing we need is a replay of the "no doc" mortgage scandal with car salesmen playing the part of mortgage brokers.

The defend-car-salesmen crowd has a couple more arguments, and a credulous Associated Press commentary by Rachel Beck summarizes them: First Ms. Beck repeats the assertion that lending legislation would affect dentists who allow patients to pay over time (the Senate bill does not and this will undoubtedly be clarified and corrected in conference.) Then, she conflates "family dentists" with auto dealers, as if they were both trusted service providers. (It's true that buying a car is as painful as a root canal, but that's as far as the comparison goes.)

That sleight of hand allows her to come up with this:

Just like the dentists, (auto dealer Tony) Federico says that more regulation will boost his costs. It could mean he does fewer loans, or is less generous in the deals he offers. Consumers then would have to seek out loans elsewhere, which could be less convenient and cost more.

"I am always looking out for my customers' best interests, but I also want to do deals that are worthwhile," Federico says.

So, who are you gonna believe - somebody named "Holly Petraeus," who's concerned about military families, or your trusted family friend Tony Federico? Hey, Tonyyy ...

Tony says you'll pay less getting a loan through him, even when he's done taking his market - and when has a car salesman ever lied? Sure, studies show that he's wrong, but who are you gonna trust here - the Center for Responsible Lending .... or your old pal Tony?

Rachel Beck's piece is embarrassing to read. Why would newspapers run it? Let's not forget that, like politicians, newspapers rely on car dealer revenue for their bread and butter. (Why, the Sun-Times was even willing to cut a deal with the New York Times this week to run luxury car ads in the Chicago market; luxury ads are especially lucrative.) Ad revenue buys a lot of credulity, especially on the editorial pages.

Hey, maybe everybody's wrong but Tony Federico and Rachel Beck. They're not - but let's say for argument's sake they are: Why not support this provision anyway? It doesn't prevent auto dealers from handling loans, it simply provides oversight when they do. If the Federicos of the world are really providing better loans at reasonable rates, there's no reason why the Consumer Financial Protection organization won't simply give them an "attaboy" or "attagirl" and tell them to keep up the good work. (Attaboy, Tony!)

Or look at it the other way: If they're not doing anything wrong, why are they so concerned about a little oversight?

Auto dealers throw a lot of lucrative fundraisers back home for DC politicians. That's why 62 House Democrats have joined their Republican colleagues in pushing for an auto dealer exemption. That's the money talking. Talk back to it: Send a fax. Call your Senator and Representative. If you do, we can have you in a nice financial reform package, complete with consumer protections against auto dealer rip offs, probably by this time next week.

Heyyy ... what a deal.

(modified from a post prepared for the Curbing Wall Street project of the Campaign for America's Future)

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UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi is joining with me and just spoke out about the August recess:

Nancy Pelosi on staying through August:

Asked at a press conference whether she'd support keeping the House of Representatives in session into the August recess to complete work on health care reform, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was fairly adamant.

"I think 70 percent of the American people would want that," she said. "I want a bill. I have no doubt we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation," she said.

When I heard Joe Lieberman say on MSNBC that he wanted to wait until after the August recess and take the health care bill home with him during his vacation to read it I knew it was a ball of lies to destroy the legislation and it got me thinking. What if the gang of six and the rest of Congress had to forfeit their vacations in August so they could finish up a health care bill? Could it stop them from making a mockery out of this important legislation and actually get the bill done on time like it should be? That's one of the reasons why I asked President Obama if he would tell Congress to forego their August recess if they try and stall the health care legislation on the Blogger Conference call.

Andrea Mitchell picked up on it and asked Senator Wyden about needing more time. Wyden said he'd give up his vacation to get it done.

Mitchell: Senator, do you think these bills could be done by the August break or should there be more time?

Wyden: I want to stick to the president's time table. The president said, he wanted health coverage legislation passed this year. I think he's right to put his foot to the peddle, I support that. Now the letter that the moderate sent, we don't say anything about delaying the August recess, In fact I'm prepared to stay here all the way through the August recess. I told my wife and my spouse, nothing is more important in my view than fixing health care. You can't get the economy on track unless you fix health care. I'm prepared to put off the August recess.

Mitchell: What did your wife have to say about that?

She wasn't exactly cheering for it, but she said ever since you were co-director of Panthers I've heard you talk about this issue so you ought to stay with it.

Mitchell: OK, support from the home front...

I know Andrea Mitchell thought she was making a joke when she brought up his wife, but this isn't a jokey situation. It's real and it's a crisis and they better do their jobs. America is waiting. And if it means that they work like most of America then so be it.

The media is picking up this question now more and more and hopefully they will ask all the Blue Dogs and conservative Dems if they will forego the August recess and work to get us a bill.

By the way, Paul Krugman debunked the gang of six in his post: The six deadly hypocrites

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You can always count on the Ben Nelsons in Congress to try and destroy any chance we have of health-care reform. He and his five buds sent a letter to President Obama and are asking for a delay in crafting health-care legislation.

What's up with all these gangs and letters?

A bipartisan group of centrist and conservative senators sent a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders on Friday urging delay in consideration of health care reform.

The letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, was drafted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and is also signed by Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.). Independent Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who caucuses with Democrats, signed on, as did Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins -- moderates heavily courted by President Obama.

The organized effort to slow down the process is a blow to the reform effort. Obama has pushed hard for a final vote before the August recess, arguing that delaying until September could slow momentum and risk missing a historic opportunity.

It's the same old song being played over and over again by these creeps. And it's the same old tired song we heard back in 1994

Greg Sargent:

If today’s demand by “centrist” Dem Senators that we slow health care reform sounds familiar, that’s because it is: Almost exactly the same thing happened in 1994, courtesy of then-centrist-Senator Bob Kerrey versus Hillarycare.

This is one of the major reasons why our health-care system has remained in shambles for decades. They use the same tactics over and over again because they work. Corporate shills and elitist views trump the hurt that the American family is feeling. President Obama needs to stop issuing orders about deficits and actually get in there and tell these people what he wants.

It's infuriating that suddenly "deficits" are more important than actual reform. Obama is planting the seeds to their own demise by talking up the deficit like it's the Holy Grail. That's just what the teabaggers and conservatives want to focus on in 2010. If you asked most people in America how a large federal deficit hurts them specifically, they couldn't tell you, but just "know that it's bad."

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