The following content is sponsored by the Electronic Payments Coalition.
How soon we forget. It wasn’t too long ago that Republican legislators acknowledged Walmart’s growth represented a threat to Main Street businesses. Economists even coined the term “the Walmart Effect” to refer to the economic pain felt by local businesses when a large company like Walmart opens a location in a community and squeezes out local mom-and-pop shops. Despite the not-too-distant past, Walmart has convinced a handful of lawmakers in Congress that the $600+ billion company needs a government handout.
In June, big-box retailers led by Walmart and Target were successful in getting Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Peter Welch (D-VT) to introduce legislation that would create new credit card routing mandates. These mandates would allow Walmart to…
