Credit card advertisements posted at a bowling alley in Palo Alto, Calif., July 2008. (AP)

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Americans and their credit cards have always been a saga. In the economic meltdown, it’s been a bloodbath, too.

Fifty-five billion dollars in credit card defaults last year. But top banks still made $27 billion off plastic and you. They did it with some pretty hardball tactics. Tricks and traps, critics say. Rough fees, fine print, jacked up rates.

Banks say they need the rough stuff to make it work. Consumers are crying foul. Now Congress is weighing in with a Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rghts. The White House is on board. Banks are fighting back.

This hour, On Point: The battle over credit card reform.

Have American credit card lenders gone too far with the rough stuff? The squeeze? Has American borrowing gone too far, on plastic? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington are:

Sudeep Reddy, reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Nessa Feddis, vice president and senior counsel for the American Bankers Association, the financial services industry’s largest advocacy group, representing the majority of credit card companies.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, which represents hundreds of consumer advocacy groups.

President Barack Obama speaks at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va., Monday, April 20, 2009. (AP)

A gut check for America this week, as debate over torture burns up the air, partisan sparks fly, and the White House struggles to control the fire.

In Detroit, Chrysler prepares for bankruptcy. In Pakistan, the Taliban closes in on the capital — and alarms go off in Washington.

A green energy bill heats up on the Hill. A member of Congress is wiretapped – and the House Speaker knew.

Jobless claims are up — again. A Freddie Mac suicide. A Craigslist killer. And another Earth Day comes and goes.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. What’s your take on the torture debate this week? Do you want investigations? Prosecutions? Or is it time to move on?

 Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Guests:

David Gergen, Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and CNN commentator. He served as a presidential advisor in the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton.

Andrea Seabrook, congressional reporter for National Public Radio.

Jack Beatty, On Point News analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009. (AP)

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So there was the new president, Barack Obama, in his first big speech before Congress — and oh, what a difference since last year’s State of the Union.

No George Bush, no scowling Dick Cheney, but smiling Joe Biden on the dais, and, at the podium, a young president with the highest public approval ratings since Ronald Reagan in his first month of office.

Obama was sober, he was hopeful, he laid out an agenda of startling ambition. But he still has to work it through America’s rugged politics. Rebuilding is going to take many hands, on both sides of the aisle, and that’s not easy.

This hour, On Point: we’ll get Republican and Democratic perspectives on the Obama agenda, and ask if it’s time for a bipartisan push to do the rebuilding — or if that is a pipe dream.

You can join the conversation. What did you hear in the President’s speech last night? Did you hear enough specifics? Enough hope? An answer to the crisis we’re in? And what about Governor Bobby Jindal’s Republican response?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

John Harwood, political writer for The New York Times and chief Washington correspondent for CNBC. See his New York Times piece on President Obama’s early “fiscal pivot.”

Rep. Donna Edwards, Democratic Congresswoman from Maryland. She represents Maryland’s 4th District, which includes parts of Montgomery and St. George’s Counties, around the Beltway. She’s a lawyer and champion of progressive causes — a hero to her “netroots” backers. She’s in her first term in Congress, and she’s the first African-American woman to represent Maryland in Congress.

Rep. Michael Burgess, Republican Congressman representing Texas’s 26th District, in the northern part of the state, including Fort Worth and most of Denton Country and parts of Tarrant, Cooke, and Dallas counties. A medical doctor (obstetrician), he joined Congress in 2003. He’s a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a strong opponent of the stimulus package.

In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, President-elect Barack Obama, left, stands with Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., center, and National Security Adviser-designate Ret. Marine Gen. James Jones, right, at a news conference in Chicago. (AP)

It was a glorious day. Americans laughed, they cried. They saw history. At the balls, they danced all night.

And now, reality waits. Barack Obama was as plain as he could be on Inauguration Day that the challenges are vast and urgent. “Nation in crisis” was right there in the morning-after headlines. And he’s called for action.

So, how do we get started? On war, energy, health care and – most urgently of all – the economy? They say there’s a plan for the first hundred days. So, what’s in it? This hour, On Point: Emergency, and Obama’s agenda, right out of the gate.

You can join the conversation. What do you expect first, in the first hundred days, from this president, President Obama? What’s most urgent for you?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columinst for Newsweek.  His 2006 book “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope” was a national bestseller.  His latest piece in Newsweek examines the keys to success for President Obama’s early agenda.

Ken Walsh, chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and author of the “The President” blog at the magazine’s Web site.  He looks at President Obama’s inaugural address and the direction he indicated for his administration.

Ezra Klein, associate editor and blogger, The American Prospect magazine.  He looked at President Obama’s Inauguration speech in his blog.

Further reading:

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times look at the tough economic challenges ahead for President Obama.

The U.S. Capitol. (AP photo)

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In the 2006 midterm elections, Democrats grabbed back a majority in the House of Representatives, and squeaked out a majority in the U.S. Senate.

That was before an Obama candidacy that could draw in $150 million a month in small donations and attract endorsements from Republicans like retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

And it was before the financial panic of ’08.

Now, the GOP fears a bloodbath in November voting. And Democrats dream of maybe even winning a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority in the U.S. Senate.

This hour, On Point: From race to hot race, we’ll go to Senate races across the country — in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Oregon, from Al Franken to “Liddy” Dole — to ask what’s coming on Capitol Hill.

You can join the conversation. Beyond the White House, what do you see coming for Congress, and the U.S. Senate, on November 4th? Share your thoughts.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Carl Hulse, chief congressional correspondent for The New York Times. He’s been reporting on Congress for twenty years.

Joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina, is Jim Morrill, senior political reporter for The Charlotte Observer.

From Nashua, New Hampshire, we’re joined by Kevin Landrigan, senior political reporter for the Nashua Telegraph.

Patricia Lopez joins us from from St. Paul, Minnesota. She’s political reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

And from Portland, Oregon, we’re joined by Jeff Mapes. He’s senior political reporter for The Oregonian.

Protesters hold up signs on Capitol Hill in Washington, during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. (AP)

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White and bloody knuckles on Capitol Hill this week.

Wall Street has collapsed, and the White House wants a bailout like none ever seen — and wants it immediately. $700 billion dollars. Maybe a trillion. No strings attached. With the threat and warning that without it the entire world economy may drop like a stone.

Congress is facing one of its biggest decisions in decades. On the table: Huge money for banks in trouble. Huge new powers for the Treasury Department and executive branch. And huge fears over what happens next.

Party lines are scrambled. Politicians are all over the map. It’s a wild — and massively consequential — debate, with world financial markets in the balance.

This Hour, On Point: We’ll talk with big players and big thinkers in the bailout battle.

You can join the conversation. Should Congress pull the trigger? Or hit the brakes? For what? What’s at stake here?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Greg Ip, U.S. economics editor for The Economist. He’s been reporting from Capitol Hill on the Congressional negotiations over the bailout.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, senior fellow at The American Enterprise Institute, and author of the new book “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis.”

Bernie Sanders, independent U.S. Senator from Vermont. Elected to the Senate in 2006 after serving for 16 years in the U.S. House, he is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in history.

Bruce Bartlett, assistant deputy Treasury secretary under President George H.W. Bush and White House economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan. He is author of the new book “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past.”

Barney Frank, Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. He will be holding hearings today with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

President Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House, Wednesday, March 19, 2003. (AP Photo/via APTN)

When it comes to war, the United States Constitution is both clear and — in practice — muddy.

Congress is granted the right to declare war, and raise armed forces, and fund war. The President is named Commander in Chief to lead those armed forces in defense of the nation.

In 1973, after the fury over the Vietnam War, Congress passed a War Powers Resolution designed to rein in the White House on war.

Now, in 2008, after the fury over Iraq, a top-tier bipartisan commission says a new way is urgently needed.

This hour, On Point: Debating how the United States goes to war.

-Tom Ashbrook

* * *

Guests:

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and advisor to the bipartisan National War Powers Commission, chaired by former secretaries of state James Baker and Warren Christopher, which released its report on Tuesday.

Slade Gorton, former Republican U.S. senator from Washington State and a member of the bipartisan National War Powers Commission.

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and author of the forthcoming book “Washington Warfare: The Politics of National Security Since World War II.”

Robert F. Turner, professor of law at the University of Virginia and founder of its Center for National Security Law. A leading scholar of war powers issues, he served in the State and Defense Departments under President Ronald Reagan.

Links:

“Put War Powers Back Where They Belong,” by James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher (The New York Times, July 8, 2008)

The National War Powers Commission, the bipartisan panel chaired by James Baker and Warren Christopher. Download the commission’s final report (pdf).

Pennsylvania Democrat Patrick Murphy is the only Iraq War veteran in Congress.

He can tell you all about driving into enemy fire in a Humvee without adequate armor; losing the battles for Iraqi hearts and minds; the strategic blunders of the Bush administration; the high price and pain of long deployments, and the 19 comrades who came home in body bags.

Murphy won a fierce battle for Congress against a Republican incumbent. Now, he’s speaking out about what when wrong in Iraq and his hopes for America.

This hour, On Point: Congressman Patrick Murphy.

-Jane Clayson

Guest:

Patrick J. Murphy, Democratic Congressman respresenting Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. He served in Iraq in 2003-2004 as a captain in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. His new memoir is “Taking the Hill: From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress.”