It's not about the Chaw

Just when I thought Dick Durbin could not get any more irrelevant, he never fails to come through. A couple of weeks ago, he was railing against Bank of America calling for a boycott of a specific American company, an overreach of the power and duty of a U.S. Senator perhaps unequaled in the nation's history.  Last Tuesday as the World Series was about to get underway, it was indeed the Illinois Senator leading the charge against terrorism ... oh wait, no ... against joblessness ... oh wait, no ... against the debt ... oh wait, no ... against the sagging economy ... oh wait, no ... against chewing tobacco!  As everyone knows, this crusade is featured prominently in the Article 1 Section 8 which outlines the duties of the Legislative Branch.
Along with three other senators, Durbin stood up for the children of America by urging the Major League Baseball Players Association in a letter, to ban the use of tobacco products by its players .  Now at first blush, this appears to be a noble cause and well worth the effort of the senators to pursue.  But why?  Does anyone think these men really give a hoot about what children see on Television?  Do you see them standing up against the violence or sex that is so prevalent in today's programming?  No.  So to say this is little more than grandstanding is as big an understatement as saying that these Sentors must have no real work, because this is certainly not what we pay them to do.  The National Cancer Society? Sure. MACT (Mothers Against Chewing Tobacco - if such an organization existed)?  Absolutely.  Four senators paid to go to Washington to do the peoples' business legislatively?  Absolute nonsense, especially with the nation in the state it's in.  Gentlemen, this is none of your business.  Neither this, nor the next publicity-seeking cause into which you think you must interject yourself. 
First the recommendation of the boycott of an American bank, now the recommendation to ban chaw on television.  Is there a single person left out there who doesn't think the Federal Government, led by Dick Durbin, has vastly overreached?

It's not about the fee

There has been considerable discussion about the instatement by Bank of America of a five dollar fee per month for use of their debit card service.  Accompanying that story was the footage of IL Senator Dick Durbin on the floor of the Senate advocating that customers of Bank of America leave the company, i.e. withdraw their money.
Even with the hue and cry with respect to the Bank of America fee, to a thinking person it should immediately become clear that it is the diatribe of Senator Durbin that is the story here, not the fee. 
As to the fee, Bank of America is doing what banks do.  They are simply reacting to the changes brought about by Dodd-Frank.  This law has limited the amount that banks can charge retailers for debit transactions so they are simply moving those charges directly to customers instead.  One of the fundamentals of free-market enterprise is that when laws effect an impact to a company's bottom line, it doesn't simply absorb the additional costs and go on its merry way.  I'm sure that's what Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank thought would happen, but it never does.  Instead, companies simply transfer the additional costs, one way or another to customers.  As a side note, this principle is also completely lost on many with respect to taxes.  One of the great princples of business, immutable and unchangeable is, "businesses do not pay taxes".  People do.  Those who advocate for business tax increases simply do not understand that businesses will never pay them.  They will simply pass those additional costs on to consumers.
And so it is with Bank of America.  They do not bear the additional costs incurred to them by Dodd-Frank.  They pass those costs along to consumers in the form of the five-dollar fee.
Now, with respect to the diatribe of Senator Durbin.  What he said exactly was this,

“Bank of America customers, vote with your feet.  Get the heck out of that bank. Find yourself a bank or credit union that won’t gouge you for $5 a month and still will give you a debit card that you can use every single day.  What Bank of America has done is an outrage.”

Now some might argue, that this is "the free market at work".  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  If U.S. Bank were to make such a statement, that would be "free market competition".  That would be U.S. Bank saying, "we won't charge you the fee, come to us".  But when a sitting Senator, on the floor of the Senate says it, that is something else.  Some might argue, that Senator Durbin has his free-speech rights.  That is certainly true.  He does.  He can say what he wants from the floor of the Senate.  But one must ask himself, how appropriate is it, for a sitting Senator, on the floor of the Senate to call for a boycott of an American company?  We do not send our elected representatives to Washington to berate companies for the way they do business.  We send them to Washington to make laws to protect the American people.  Nothing more.
In the last 50 to 75 years, we have developed a form of government that tries to pick winners and losers.  From energy policy, to home ownership, to the foods we eat, government has tried to shape the market place.  How has that worked out so far?  It is clear that the Federal Government is now over-reaching in yet another dangerous way.  The words of Senator Durbin are just the latest example.