. >> reporter: the american bankers association says it costs banks about $300 per customer per year to maintain their checking accounts. it points the finger straight at congress for this new pain. >> to be successful any business or household revenue has to be higher than expenses. >> reporter: consumer advocates say don't buy it. they say banks aren't hurting. they are still making money even from swipe fees. >> quarterback don't think it is fair for banks to raise fees and blame congress. >> reporter: advocates say you can try to avoid the debit card fee, the bank may waive it if you use direct deposit, carry a minimum monthly balance and have multiple accounts at the same bank, complain to the bank or you can say you are going to take your account elsewhere. that is what david pane plans to do. >> i plan on telling them as a close my account i think the bottom line is i am almost offended that they are doing this. >> reporter: so far a lot of unhappy customers have already done this. we'll have to see if the banks change their mind. megan pringle, abc 2 news. >> the fact that sev

. >> reporter: now we talked to a spokeswoman from the american bankers association earlier today. it's a trade group for banks of all sizes and she told us quote, banking according to your political belief is not always advisable. she says customers should research any bank or credit unions policies, fees and accessibility ahead of time before making the switch. live in oakland, allie rasmus, ktvu. >>> >> today i want to announce that i'm removing my bank accounts that's woát in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> that was silican valley ceo and philanthropist mike fox sr. taking a stand in san jose. the 75-year-old pulled his money out of bank of america ahead of tomorrow's national bank transfer day. fox said he made the move in an effort to promote social and economic justice. fox runs the beer distributing company me fox & company in san jose. >>> within the past hour a ktvu spoke with oakland business leaders just out of a meeting with mayor jean quan and over officials. the camp is hurting local businesses but as much as 40%. they are urging the city to keep people from

good old gig and cranford emissary she obtained a secret memo by the lobbying firm to the american bankers association outlining a plan to use opposition research their term to quote undermine the credibility of the movement for and offered up its services to undermine the ninety nine percent movement for the price of eight hundred fifty thousand dollars so how does occupy wall street during these numerous attacks and continue growing for answers to that i'm joined from new york by jay meyerson contributor truthout and here in washington amanda beadle reporter and blogger with think progress good to be here thank you amanda j great to see you again. these thank you these not nonviolent images are so much more powerful than the pictures. of people being chased or even the pick the counter pictures of people smashing windows that. one day came out of oakland. how. i'm curious you're on the ground there in new york and with the movement how what are people doing or how are they how are they working to make sure that when people are confronted by this kind of violence you know chemical attacks by the poli

party freshman is honeywell international company known for its defense products next is the american bankers association which is particularly interesting considering that one of the central narratives of the tea party is that it was anti bailout so i wonder how that squares away with one of the major trade associations for the banking sector and coming in third yet another defense contractor lockheed martin and fourth of course infamous koch industries which is to be expected and finally the national association of realtors so the tea party is being largely funded by defense contractors and banking association and the billionaire brothers really sounds like they're standing up against the status quo in washington they're fighting the military industrial complex which has pushed us into unnecessary wars saddled us with excessive military spending and debt and they're fighting bankers that have taken bailouts of the american people oh wait. they're not doing that at all they're just like every other member of congress in washington taking money from special interests to do their bidding so i think that t

prepared as a pitch document for the american banker's association, a client of clgc. oses for the banks and their sworn defenders. democratic victories in 2012. the authors write would mean more than short-term political discomfort for wall street firms and has the potential to have long-lasting political, financial impact on the companies in the center of the bull's eye. here we have in black and white, former boehner aides that lobby for wall street admitting they will be tougher on wall street and admit that "occupy wall street" might push republicans to distance themselves from wall street's bigger concerns. the bigger concern in the words of the memo's author should be, quote, that republicans will no longer defend wall street companies. in order to head off this terrifying eventuality. they propose a program of occupy research on occupy activists to identify opportunities to construct fact-base the narratives of the ows for high impact media placement to expose the backers. they admit that individual companies likely will not be the best spokes people for their o

focus of the national conversation has really shifted and if you are sitting inside the american bankers' associationas to start to worry you. >> do you think by they're now talking about gearing up to smear the occupiers, others of us in the movement, others like elizabeth warren they're of course trying to turn the debate back, which we've always known that's what they always do is try discrediting campaign. do you think it will work? >> well, i don't think it will work, but i think one thing that we've seen happen is for the right to go after occupy in these sort of traditional way that they go after progressive protesters, right? newt gingrich saying "get a bath" that's a throwback to stupid caricatures from 40 years ago. right? this is just going after the hippies and something every conservative worth his or her salt knows how to do instinctively, it's part of their vocabulary. the reason i think it will work in certain ways, because it will appeal to conservatives. what i don't think will work in the long run is fundamentally this. the banks are massively unpopular, and yet they still get away

you tend to find groups like the chamber of commerce and the american bankers association, they come e states. >> the question of disappointment is if you look at domestic policy, it is hard from the left perspective, liberal perspective, to look at the priorities domestically and disagree with them in terms of what the objectives were in the democratic congress when it had control of wrong and the white house. the objection is much more, i think, on what happens when those corporate lobbyists and when the disfunkal congress get their hands on it. >> and nancy pelosi had a much more industrialized agenda, she wanted to tax the risk and claw back banker bonuses. the congressman from virginia made this point, the house was much more in touch with the populist moment that was choked out by the senate. she in some ways has more credibility on this, even if i don't think that's publicly acknowledged that harry reid or barack obama would. >> and that house passed an unbelievable round of legislation, including the cap and trade bill, which was left to die. >> i just have to say two things.

sitting democrat senators named in the memo from the lobbying firm written to their client, the american banker associating he said the senator is not surprised that big bank lobbyist are trying to use money and their yuns to protect the wealthiest few at the expense of hard -- >> thank you for bringing up that story. we heard a buzz about this story and the good journalism in getting the memo. apparently the consulting group of the banker association has a lot of contact with boehner's office. the 99% group in occupy wall street has tapped into a real fear and concern and anxiety in the country. they have said more persuasively, regardless of what happens exactly on the streets, they have said more persuasively how big of a deal it is, and how terrible and troublesome it is for the country that we have the huge gap, and in the middle class is shrinking, a small number of people are getting wealthier and falling out of the middle class, and people aspi aspiring to be in middle class are seeing the doors shut in their face right and left, and the bank lobby and the wall street lobby is empowered to do more

i want to read a quote that is from the president of the american banker's association. "unsound and unscientific is dangerous." it's from 1933 about nonother than the federal deposit insurance and the banks railed against it in 1933, but today, i think you'll hard pressed to find anyone who thinking that insuring deposits is somehow unsound and dangerous. i think the fact is that the cfpb will not do ning dangerous, unscientific, or unsound either. hopefully you won't have to wait 70 or 80 years because none of us will be here. hopefully it's not that long before they see -- well, maybe you have that hope, but i would like to just ask you so simplified forms, valuable guidance of customers that can understand what they are buying and repaying. can you tell us a little bit about that in terms of a mortgage? >> sure. >> what's different? >> absolutely. so if you were -- i think it's useful to reground this in terms of the credit bubble and ensuing crisis. >> okay. >> during the credit bubble, some of the fastest growing products were those products that were the most diffi

the parks can't be used anymore. and i'll give you another example. today, a big story was broken by chris hayes about this memo drawn up for the american association of bankersa d.c. lobbying group, that the group actually drew up a proposal of $850,000 that they wanted the banking lobby to commit to them to launch a campaign against occupy. so they're taking occupy very seriously and they're figuring a way to undermine them and to ward off any democratic politician connection to the movement leading into the next election cycle. so very, very interesting, even if there's no p.r. for the movement or no coordination, its opponents are very much worried about what the effect of this movement might be. >> it doesn't take an investigation to figure that out. all you have to do is watch the coverage on different networks and you can see what you're talking about. thank you, professor, we appreciate it. >> thank you, don. >>> next, the penn state sex abuse scandal. the mother of one of the alleged victims is speaking out. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, an

has two former john boehner staffers, run by them and their client is the american banking association and the pitch to american bankersreal problem on your problem on your hands. occupy wall street has captured public attention and we're worried it's going to intimidate republican politicians who may no longer back wall street. you need awe plan to go after occupy wall street, polling in battleground states to put together opposition research to take them on. >> isn't this sort of a standard washington practice? i mean, this is what lobbyists do, they try to generate business and -- >> yes, yes. there's a degree to which i don't think it's surprising. it's just knowing in black and white what we suspected, which is that there is now a coordinated effort to push back on occupy wall street. i think this is -- this is standard. there are memos -- we don't know how many memos there are circling around. this is the one we got our hands on. i think it means -- i think the significance is this, there's not anything wrong per se with a lobbying firm producing this document. what it means, though, is that occupy wall street is