Trade association executives utilize ongoing, galvanizing issues to keep their constituencies riled up, to keep money rolling in, to insure attendance at conferences and to get credit union volunteers to hike their hills. Our fears ensure their job security. All trade associations do this, not just ours.

To keep our credit union blood boiling post HR-1151, our trades have served up blatantly anticonsumer causes such as bankruptcy reform, credit card reform and opposition to cram-downs. In every case there was no real benefit to credit unions. We could have been on the side of the angels, yet we chose to hop into bed with banks and monoline credit card behemoths. This is among the reasons for our dropping out of CUNA and the Texas Credit Union League earlier this year.

When things get quiet out here in credit union land, our trade associations pull out the cause célèbre guaranteed to inflame the passions of true believers: taxation of credit union income. Credit union taxation is the gift that keeps on giving for credit union and banking trade association executives and lobbyists.