All Those Who Feel Like Second Class Citizens Raise Your Hand!

That’s the new angle that CUNA is taking in trying to justify credit unions bellying up to the TARP trough.

The press release is the trifecta of bad, in my opinion. It combines the credit union brand with tainted TARP AND Timothy Geithner (newly appointed US Treasury Secretary who said, and I’m paraphrasing here, that he didn’t pay his taxes because the one page form was confusing).

I’m in California right now and I know there are a lot of credit unions that are having to make tough decisions. Some may not even survive this recession. But they are the minority. We have such a tremendous opportunity to renew our values to the seven principles – one of them is NOT government bail-out, in fact, #4 is “autonomy & independence” and #6 is “cooperation among cooperatives is vital.” Why are we not doing this CUNA?

If being treated as “second class” means we remain a financial cooperative owned and operated by our members with a 100 year history of NOT costing taxpayers money, I for one will proudly wear that label. Who’s with me? Raise your hands.