I don't know why they didn't force the processors to pass along the cost. They probably did everything they could to do it. I think for any policy-maker who looks at this market, their first reaction will be, wow, this this is really complicated; we can't just go in and tell companies what prices to set and not expect any unintended consequences.
The market for payments is multisided. You can't affect prices here without also affecting prices over there. You can't give merchants a break without costing consumers more. You can't give consumers a break without costing merchants more. The government has probably realized that this is a game of redistribution. You can't make everyone win here. This is why the history of credit card policy in this country seems to me to be like that famous definition of insanity: We do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. We've been through many voluntary agreements, probably because we've realized that we can't regulate and we can't make everyone happy.
Our perspective as an association is this: Let's stop the madness and focus on actually promoting competition and innovation in this space. That's what will drive down the costs for businesses and consumers.