Obama wins one, loses one

President Obama this afternoon praise the House's passage of a bill designed to protect consumers from sudden increases in interest rates and late fees.

The legislation, which House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts helped shepherd, passed by a bipartisan vote of 357-70.

"Today, under the leadership of Representatives Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney, and Luis Gutierrez, members of both parties in the House of Representatives came together to protect American consumers, paving the way toward real, meaningful credit card reform," Obama said in a statement.

"While Americans have a responsibility to live within their means and pay what they owe, credit card companies have a responsibility to set rules that are fair and transparent. The principles I have long supported would help ensure that these responsibilities are met: strong and reliable consumer protections; credit card forms and statements that have plain language in plain sight; tools that can help people make an informed choice about what credit card to use; and beefed up monitoring, enforcement, and penalties. And building on what we have achieved today, I will work with Congress in the weeks to come so that I can sign a credit card reform bill into law that upholds these principles and upholds the interests of the American people."

Over in the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, a bill -- which Obama backed but didn't spend a ton of political capital pushing -- to spare hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy was defeated.

A dozen Democrats joined Republicans in the 51-45 vote to shelve the legislation.