By: Joshua Holland, The Nation, 10/8/15

This week, a government watchdog filed an ethics complaint alleging that a dozen members of Congress had received campaign donations from predatory payday lenders immediately before or just after taking action to protect their interests.

The donations, first flagged in a report released last week by Allied Progress, a progressive advocacy group, appear to cross the fuzzy line between routine fundraising and a quid pro quo arrangement—what non-lawyers would see as something approaching outright bribery.

Anne Weismann, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, which filed the complaint, told The Nation, “These members of Congress are advancing the interests of what can only be called a reprehensible industry. Its business model is to trap people into this endless cycle of debt, and it’s hard to imagine how they could see this as being in the best interests of their constituents.”

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