Apparently even the best and the brightest, the college students, are too stupid to know what a variable line of credit is.

I think the word your looking for is naive and yes most are. Many are also short on cash and not very responsible. That, however, does not make the practices of the CC companies less deceptive or less designed to suck as much money as possible from those who can least afford it.
The limitations listed above are hardly onerous for a company whose goal is not to collect as many late fees and overlimit fees as possible.

I also agree with Dave-it seems like banks are used to a certain level of profit, and rather than controlling what they issue to those who have poor credit, they want to make up the difference by charging those with good credit who pay on time and in full.

I am not a fan of some of the things banks do-I think the three week billing cycle, and late charges for bills that do not arrive on time (but were mailed in reasonable time) are absorbitant. I also don't like the fee systems and interest rate hikes for the payment that was mailed timely, but arrives late.

But I also don't think it is okay for banks to balance their checkbooks on the backs of those who have used their credit in good faith.

All this bill appears to do is end a specific of practices which they have been abusing.

Abuse and deceptive practices? I'm glad the government forced the credit card companies to send out all of those lending disclosures over the last forty years.

Apparently even the best and the brightest, the college students, are too stupid to know what a variable line of credit is.

Two of my cards jacked up my interest rate above 25% earlier in the year and one of them raised my rate to like 28.9% last fall. I called to try and talk them out of it but all I got was, you either accept the new rate or cancel your account. So they probably knew this was coming and decided to stick it to people while they still could. This legislation is late and isn't going to help anyone who's already screwed.

It seems to me that the fundamental problem is that banks are spoiled. They've become accustomed to a level of profit that just isn't realistic any more.

One of the things that seems to be missing from the discussions I've seen is that the “good” customers benefit the credit card companies in a couple of ways.

First, the level of risk associated with them is lower. That's a feature not a bug. Driving them away will raise the level of risk even if it succeeds in increasing their profit margins, about which I have some doubt. Second, they already make money in several ways other than fees and the putative interest charged from day of sale. There's float and there's what the vendor pays. If charges go down which they inevitably will if they start charging interest from day of sale, they'll lose both of those.

The Fed won't have a zero prime rate or interbank rate forever.

Consumer advocates and legislators pointed out that the legislation still allows issuers to raise interest rates for future purchases as long as they give 45 days' notice. It also does not set any interest rate caps, allowing issuers to charge new customers any rate they want.

All this bill appears to do is end a specific of practices which they have been abusing. What we likely will see disappear are very low 'introductory rates' for people with poor credit. This could well mean fewer people with poor credit in the market or at least less deep in the credit market.

What is in the bill that prevents CC companies from doing anything other than suckering in college students and the desperate with low introductory rates that will almost certainly have the rate doubled or more within a year?
Freshly minted college students without jobs will not likely get the $15,000 in credit upon opening a bank account I was offered when I moved to LA jobless immediately after graduating college.

Will the cards no longer collect a % from every purchase?
Will they no be able to judge a person's credit worthiness and assign an appropriate interest rate and/or annual fee?

If their business model relies on deceptive practices then their business model needs to change.