What a shocker that the banking industry is, as the Wall Street Journal puts it this morning, "aggressively lobbying" Treasury "to make it less costly" for them to get out from under TARP's thumb.

As the WSJ also notes, and way up high too, it's a controversial move by the banks, because they're under fire for charging higher fees to consumers for a slew of products. Including, as I put it Monday, "jacking up fees" for mortgages.

But the banks need that extra moolah from fees because they've spent record amounts on lobbying in the past three years.

For some more background on Wall Street's lobbying, see "Wall Street's investment in pols paid off," in which I pointed on March 4 to a report whose information is sound, though its title is somewhat hysterical: "Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America."

On the other hand, the banking industry is displaying quite a bit of gall. The WSJ points out that the American Bankers Association is begging Treasury to let banks withdraw from TARP's Capital Purchase Program without having to pay "an onerous exit fee." (See the ABA's own reference to this on April 17.)

Reiteration: The banks themselves have already furtively hiked fees on the public and initiated new ones. Further gall: These fees on the public are being jacked up amid the drumbeat of propaganda that average Americans need to give banks and other companies more money to help "spend" our way out of the recession.