Senator Sanders agrees with President Trump’s call to cap credit card interest rates

We live in a nation of unprecedented wealth and income inequality – where a handful of billionaires become much richer, while the working class falls further and further behind.

Just since Election Day, as millions of Americans struggle to afford housing, food, electricity and health care, the three richest people in America have become more than $625 billion richer and are now collectively worth $1.3 trillion. Meanwhile, due to a rigged political system, billionaires now pay a lower effective tax rate than the average truck driver, teacher or nurse.

At the same time, Wall Street has never been more consolidated and powerful than it is today. Incredibly, just four Wall Street firms now manage approximately $38 trillion in assets – more than 120% of our annual GDP – and are major shareholders in more than 95% of the S&P 500 companies. Furthermore, just five major financial institutions led by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, American Express, Citigroup, and Capitol One now account for nearly 70% of all credit card transactions, while just two giant credit card networks (Visa and Mastercard) process over 80% of credit card transactions.

With that enormous concentration of ownership, Wall Street has an incredible impact on the prices, interest rates and fees we pay and on the well-being of employees.

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Within that reality, Mr President Donald Trump went to Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21 to talk about his so-called “affordability agenda.” Real? Is there anyone left in America who doesn’t understand that Trump’s concerns about “affordability” are nothing more than a desperate attempt to prop up his rapidly declining poll numbers?

Remember: This is a president who gave up a front row seat at his inauguration Elon MuskJeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, and who filled his cabinet with more billionaires than any administration in American history.

This is a president who has given a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1% while excluding 15 million people from health care and doing nothing to prevent health care premiums from doubling for an average of 20 million Americans.

This is a president who is working with Elon Musk and the other Big Tech billionaires to push AI and robotics on the American people, which will result in the loss of tens of millions of good-paying jobs.

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But I have to admit that there is one problem that Trump has identified that makes sense. He is right when he says that big banks are ripping off the American people with outrageously high interest rates credit card interest rates.

In 2024, credit card companies raked in more than $190 billion from interest and fees charging obscenely high interest rates while bombarding Americans with roughly 3 billion requests. Today, as a result of their efforts to get Americans hooked on purchasing their expensive plastic, Americans are drowning in a record $1.23 trillion in credit card debt.

Despite the fact that major banks can borrow money at less than 4% interest from the Federal Reserve, the average interest rate that consumers pay on credit cards is almost 24%. Yes. 24%.

In other words, while working-class Americans pay unconscionably high interest rates, the banks and their executives on Wall Street treat each other like bandits.

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When big banks charge 24% or 30% interest on credit cards, they are not in the business of ‘making credit available’. They are involved in extortion and loan sharking, putting pressure on working families who are already stretched to the breaking point. And that should not be acceptable in the United States of America.

So, what do we do about it?

Trump has proposed to limit credit card interest to 10%. That’s a good idea. The problem is that his proposal would last only a year and in many cases would cost consumers even more than they pay now.

Today, many major banks are already luring people into signing up for their credit cards with 0% introductory rates, only to jack up those rates – sometimes to 36% – once the teaser period ends. In other words, what Trump is proposing is nothing more than a bait and switch.

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If we are serious about helping working families, we need something real – and not another scam.

That’s why I introduced bipartisan legislation to limit credit card interest to 10% for at least five years. After that, I believe we should move toward a permanent cap of no more than 15% – similar to the long-standing statutory cap within which credit unions have operated since 1980.

Surprise, surprise. The billionaires on Wall Street and organizations representing the financial services industry, like the American Bankers Association, don’t like this idea (you can read their full statement here).

Jamie DimonThe CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who we all know stays up all night worrying about the needs of working families, has spoken out strongly against this bill. I wonder why? Could it have something to do with the fact that Dimon made $770 million in compensation last year, while the bank he runs made $57 billion in profits and charged US interest rates as high as 30%?

In other words, while working-class Americans pay unconscionably high interest rates, the banks and their executives on Wall Street treat each other like bandits.

Mr. Dimon claims that my bipartisan bill would limit access to credit for low-income consumers. He has it backwards. This bill would stop JPMorgan Chase and other financial giants from charging American workers predatory credit card interest rates, trapping them in a vicious cycle of debt.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University estimate that my legislation would save the American people $100 billion a year in interest payments, or about $899 a year.

How can this legislation benefit working families?

Let me give you one example.

A 28% interest rate on a $5,000 credit card balance can cost a consumer as much as $11,000 in interest and can take up to 24 years to earn back the interest. Immediately 10% credit card interest rate limitwould save that consumer more than $7,200 in interest. The bank could still make over $3,700 in profit from that consumer. It just wouldn’t erode them.

Let’s be clear: charging outrageously high interest rates is not a financial service. It is usury – a practice condemned by every major religion on earth.

In “The Divine Comedy,” Dante reserved a special place in the Seventh Circle of Hell for people who charged usurious interest rates. Today we don’t need hellfire and pitchforks, we don’t need rivers of boiling blood, but we do need a national usury law that limits interest on credit cards to 10%.

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This is not a radical idea. Polls show it is extremely popular. The American people – Democrats, Republicans and Independents agree: credit card companies are ripping us off. It has to stop.

But I have to admit that there is one problem that Trump has identified that makes sense. He is right when he says that big banks are ripping off the American people with outrageously high credit card interest rates.

This is also a matter of economic justice.

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When Wall Street’s greed and recklessness pushed the economy to the brink of collapse in 2008, causing millions of Americans to lose their homes, jobs and savings, taxpayers came to the rescue. The Federal Reserve gave these huge banks trillions of dollars in emergency loans at virtually zero interest rates. We saved the banks.

Now it’s time for Congress to stand with working families, put an end to Wall Street greed, and pass legislation capping credit card interest rates at 10%.

CLICK HERE TO VAN SEN. BERNIE SCHUURDERS