It's Just My Nature...

Have you heard the fable "The Scorpion and the Frog"?

The Scorpion and the Frog

  A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the 
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The 
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion 
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

  The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of 
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?" 

  Replies the scorpion: "It's my nature..."

Obama can't help himself from making a straw man argument. It's just his nature. 

Costs Don't Just Magically Disappear

Remember Dodd-Frank? It was the sweeping law passed after the housing bubble that was going to regulate the banks and prevent them from being "casinos". Well, one of the things it did was to limit how much the bank can charge retailers on debit-card transactions. Ok, so let's see if we can do some logic: Price of providing debit-card transactions to the bank stays the same. The fees they charged have now been reduced to about half. What does the bank do? Well, they try to not lose money. Legal Insurrection has a good post on this issue.

It's pretty simple to me. If you tell a business that it has to charge half price for a certain produce (debit card use) they're going to raise the price in a corresponding amount on a different product. Duh. Apparently, our legislature is shocked, SHOCKED that businesses want to make money.