Republican calls for credit card APR to max out at 18%
Sept 13, 2023 21:35:20 GMT -5
Post by Berean on Sept 13, 2023 21:35:20 GMT -5
Republican calls for credit card APR to max out at 18%: Senator Josh Hawley demands a cap to stop rates soaring to 24% and debt hitting $1 trillion
By MORGAN PHILLIPS, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:44 EDT, 11 September 2023 | UPDATED: 21:03 EDT, 11 September 2023
Sen. Josh Hawley has a new populist proposal that eschews the laissez-faire Republican economics of old: he wants to install an 18 percent cap on credit card interest rates.
The Missouri Republican tore into soaring interest rates - which hit an average of 28 percent this week just as credit card debt levels have surpassed $1 trillion in the U.S.
In comments to RealClearPolitics, Hawley noted the government was 'quick to bail out the banks just this spring,' referring to Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York, but 'has ignored working people struggling to get ahead.'
He put credit card issuers directly in his crosshairs: 'We know what they're doing.'
Sen. Josh Hawley has a new populist proposal that eschews the laissez-faire Republican economics of old: he wants to install an 18 percent cap on credit card interest rates
'They're out there actively encouraging and finding new ways to get consumers indebted — they hike rates, and they can make a killing on it,' Hawley said.
Setting caps on credit card APR would be a 'fair' and 'common sense' way to give 'the working class a chance,' according to Hawley.
President Biden has made getting rid of credit card 'junk' fees a focus of his administration, but Hawley's proposal takes it even further to the left.
It puts him in line with democratic socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who introduced the Loan Shark Prevention Act in 2019 to cap credit card APR at 15%.
In comments to RCP, Hawley defended his proposal: 'We have a long history in this country of statutes, at the state and a federal level, that prevent what we used to call usury – an old-fashioned word for ripping off working people, and we need to get back to it.'
The Missouri Republican tore into soaring interest rates - which hit an average of 28 percent this week just as credit card debt levels have surpassed $1 trillion in the U.S.
Hawley has led the charge on the GOP's souring on the corporate-friendly policies it espoused above all else for decades - he's proposed legislation that would cap insulin prices at $25 and has championed a wage subsidy proposal that would use federal dollars to increase the minimum wage.
Credit card balances shot up by $45 billion between the first and second quarters of 2023 pushing total credit card debt past the $1 trillion mark, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The rate of credit card delinquencies has also been rising and topped 5 percent in July, the fed said.
A spokesperson for the American Banker's Association (ABA) told DailyMail.com of the proposal: 'Price controls don’t work.'
'This proposal would harm consumers by restricting access to credit for those who need it the most and driving them toward less regulated, more costly alternatives.'
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By MORGAN PHILLIPS, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:44 EDT, 11 September 2023 | UPDATED: 21:03 EDT, 11 September 2023
Sen. Josh Hawley has a new populist proposal that eschews the laissez-faire Republican economics of old: he wants to install an 18 percent cap on credit card interest rates.
The Missouri Republican tore into soaring interest rates - which hit an average of 28 percent this week just as credit card debt levels have surpassed $1 trillion in the U.S.
In comments to RealClearPolitics, Hawley noted the government was 'quick to bail out the banks just this spring,' referring to Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York, but 'has ignored working people struggling to get ahead.'
He put credit card issuers directly in his crosshairs: 'We know what they're doing.'
Sen. Josh Hawley has a new populist proposal that eschews the laissez-faire Republican economics of old: he wants to install an 18 percent cap on credit card interest rates
'They're out there actively encouraging and finding new ways to get consumers indebted — they hike rates, and they can make a killing on it,' Hawley said.
Setting caps on credit card APR would be a 'fair' and 'common sense' way to give 'the working class a chance,' according to Hawley.
President Biden has made getting rid of credit card 'junk' fees a focus of his administration, but Hawley's proposal takes it even further to the left.
It puts him in line with democratic socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who introduced the Loan Shark Prevention Act in 2019 to cap credit card APR at 15%.
In comments to RCP, Hawley defended his proposal: 'We have a long history in this country of statutes, at the state and a federal level, that prevent what we used to call usury – an old-fashioned word for ripping off working people, and we need to get back to it.'
The Missouri Republican tore into soaring interest rates - which hit an average of 28 percent this week just as credit card debt levels have surpassed $1 trillion in the U.S.
Hawley has led the charge on the GOP's souring on the corporate-friendly policies it espoused above all else for decades - he's proposed legislation that would cap insulin prices at $25 and has championed a wage subsidy proposal that would use federal dollars to increase the minimum wage.
Credit card balances shot up by $45 billion between the first and second quarters of 2023 pushing total credit card debt past the $1 trillion mark, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The rate of credit card delinquencies has also been rising and topped 5 percent in July, the fed said.
A spokesperson for the American Banker's Association (ABA) told DailyMail.com of the proposal: 'Price controls don’t work.'
'This proposal would harm consumers by restricting access to credit for those who need it the most and driving them toward less regulated, more costly alternatives.'
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