For Immediate Release:
May 25, 2010

LINCOLN FLIP-FLOPS ON WALL STREET REFORM IN NEW AD

Lincoln Took $1.2 Million from Big Banks, Voted Against Lower Credit Card Interest Rates for Arkansans

North Little Rock – Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who took $1.2 million from Wall Street, more than $49,000 from credit card companies, and consistently sided with big banks against Arkansans, has flip-flopped again by claiming to be pro-Wall Street reform in her new ad.

"TV advertising won't bring back the savings, homes, and businesses Arkansans lost in the financial meltdown that Sen. Lincoln and Washington special interests helped create," said Halter campaign manager Carol Butler. "Sen. Lincoln voted with Wall Street ten years ago, a vote which helped create the financial meltdown, and just last week she voted to allow out-of-state credit card companies to keep charging sky-high interest rates to Arkansas consumers. It's a very Washington thing to pat yourself on the back for fixing a problem that you caused."

In 1999, Lincoln voted to allow big banks and investment firms to merge, which critics believe contributed to the current financial crisis. In the 10 years since, Senator Lincoln did nothing on the issue as the problem grew except to take $1.2 million from Wall Street investment banks.

And now as she runs a TV advertisement casting herself as a hero on a problem she helped to create, she quietly votes to weaken consumer protections on unregulated credit card interest rates. Last week, she voted to allow out-of-state credit card companies to keep charging sky-high interest rates to Arkansas consumers.

"Sen. Lincoln has a long and shameful history of siding with big banks and Wall Street and against Arkansans," concluded Butler.