Just a little friendly congressional intervention in the marketplace to shift risk from people who can’t afford the product to people who can. Hey — it worked out with mortgages, didn’t it?

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”…

The industry says that the proposals will force banks to issue fewer credit cards at greater cost to the current cardholders.

You’re already helping to pay off deadbeats’ homes. Why not help free them up to rack up some more credit-card debt too? I’m going to poll this one just because I’m curious to see what HA readers’ habits are, but I’ll tell you it’s been at least 10 years since I let any part of a monthly bill carry over to the next month. Good to know I’ll be paying interest now regardless. Exit question: Er, isn’t this an exceedingly bad idea during a recession? People with good credit will be less likely to make major purchases for fear of the monthly interest and people with bad credit will be more likely to start charging, and then inevitably defaulting. Good work, Congress.