In a Huffington Post column criticizing JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for threatening to raise fees if debit card fees are curtailed, columnist Richard Eskow makes an interesting point: 

Think of the debit fee as an invisible, nationwide federal sales tax of 1% to 2% on everything you buy with a card — except that you never got to vote on it, never heard a debate about it, and may not have even known it existed before it came up in the debate over bank reform. This money’s more efficient than other taxpayer-subsidized bank bailouts in at least one respect: It goes directly to the too-big-to-fail banks, instead of being funneled through the federal government.