RUSH: Remember the story yesterday of Bank of America giving out credit cards to illegals without Social Security numbers as long as they’d had a checking account for a certain length of time and no overdrafts in three months or some such thing? Well… (Story) “Lawmakers are lashing out at Bank of America Corp. … saying it creates a dangerous loophole for terrorists and illegal immigrants. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., called for a federal investigation of the program on Wednesday, sending Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff a letter requesting a review of the program. … Tancredo said in a statement: ‘Today we are hearing a far different message: Bank of America, it’s everywhere terrorists want to be.’ The program welcomes applicants without a Social Security number and credit history if they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft… ‘If an individual wants to get a credit card, they can get that in their home country,’ Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told FOX News.
“‘This is something that is of deep concern to me, that Bank of America would choose to market to those that have chosen to break U.S. law to enter this country and then they would give credit to them.'” Well, I understand the outrage in all this, but if you take all that away, just look at the market factors of this. The market must be huge! The market must be huge. They’re not going to run around and do this for the social concerns of it. (interruption) Yes, Mr. Snerdley? A question from the official program observer. Yes, what is it? (interruption) Well, good point, good point. Snerdley’s point is, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. It’s wrong for Bank of America to market to these illegals but it’s okay for politicians to do that for votes?”
We got two groups of people here. The politicians and the Bank of America people are the same people. There’s nothing wrong with it. They don’t see any problem with it. But just strip away the whole notion of this illegal aspect of it and the marketing aspect, and look at the risk involved! Credit cards to people without Social Security numbers, and all you have to do to get the card is to prove you haven’t had an overdraft in three months. Can you imagine what the application for the card must look like? The name must not matter. The Social Security number obviously doesn’t matter because you don’t have one. The address can’t possibly matter. You have to have someplace to send the bills, but I don’t know. It’s very, very, very strange. I’m telling you, like I said yesterday: When this stuff starts happening, folks, you can forget it. You can forget it. It’s over.