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You don't think Ohio should let payday lenders gouge borrowers with 391 percent annual percentage rates? Try on this "compromise" for size: the same 391 percent APR?

That's how dumb some House Republicans, even some Democrats, think voters are about a problem even George W. Bush saw.

The president in 2006 signed a bill, backed by congressional Republicans, that capped APRs at 36 percent for members of the armed forces. Why? Because unregulated payday lending was crushing military families with debt.

So now, miracle of miracles, Congress actually looks good compared to the General Assembly. Thank a Clark County Republican, blocking real payday loan reform, for the legislature's sorry showing. Here's why:

The best payday-lending reform pending in Columbus is sponsored by Medina Republican William G. Batchelder and Youngstown Democrat Robert F. Hagan. It would cap payday loan APRs at 36 percent in Ohio.

But Rep. Christopher R. Widener, a Springfield Republican, chair of the Financial Institutions, Real Estate and Securities Committee, must have a tighter grasp on the issue than even the president. Widener won't let the committee vote on the 36 percent cap. That suggests he fears the committee would approve it. Lenders don't want that. (Complete coincidence, a payday-lender political action committee has donated to Widener's state Senate campaign fund).

At a closed-door House Republican caucus Wednesday night, a lender-friendly counter-plan surfaced. To call it a "compromise" does to the English language what a gutting knife does to a deer.

The gist: Payday lenders said they'd stop charging Ohio borrowers any interest at all. But, there's a catch: Those lenders would instead charge Ohioans a "loan origination fee" of $15 per $100 borrowed. Applying the loan fee to an Ohio payday loan would amount to an APR of ... 391 percent.

What's more, the origination fee almost sounds like the "monthly participation fee" that Advance America Cash Advance Centers (with 244 Ohio storefronts as of Dec. 31) charged in Pennsylvania until a Pennsylvania regulators' lawsuit, in effect, ran Advance America out of the commonwealth.

Even allowing for recent Statehouse shamelessness, the Ohio House's failure to pass a 36 percent APR cap is a new and disgusting low:

Fact: The Social Security Administration, The Wall Street Journal recently reported, may rewrite rules that now let Social Security direct-deposit benefits into payday-loan companies' bank accounts. Reason: Current rules can give payday lenders, not beneficiaries, first dibs on Social Security benefits.

Fact: Two federal regulators — for national banks and savings and loans — have forced such financial institutions to stop "partnering" with payday lenders. One S&L pushed away from the trough was Warren's First Place Bank, which partnered (for Texas loans) with Cincinnati-based Check 'n Go. The national banks' regulator said letting them partner with payday lenders could let payday lenders "evade state and local consumer protection laws." Fancy that.

Fact: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. lets some state banks partner with payday lenders, but tightened its reins in 2005. "Providing high-cost, short-term credit on a recurring basis to customers with long-term credit needs is not responsible lending," an FDIC statement said.

Fact: NAACP national Chair Julian Bond has denounced payday lending as "legalized extortion," saying "it compromises our efforts to build wealth and savings in communities of color."

So, payday loans are too dicey for bank regulators, too expensive for George W. Bush and break hearts in black neighborhoods. But some Ohio House members don't have a problem with that, which is predictable — and revolting.

Thomas Suddes is an adjunct assistant professor at Ohio University and his column appears in various Ohio newspapers. Send e-mail to tsuddes@gmail.com.

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