‘Working Americans are drowning in record credit card debt while the biggest credit card issuers get richer and richer by hiking their interest rates to the moon. It’s not just wrong, it’s exploitative. And it needs to end,’ Sen. Josh Hawley said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- Hoping to capitalize on the populist momentum of President Trump’s sweeping victory last November, GOP Senator Josh Hawley has announced that he is partnering with Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to help provide “relief” to the American people.
On Tuesday, Hawley said in a press release that he and Sanders, a self-described “socialist” who also supports abortion, have co-authored a bill that would cap interest rates on credit cards at 10 percent for the next five years.
“Working Americans are drowning in record credit card debt while the biggest credit card issuers get richer and richer by hiking their interest rates to the moon. It’s not just wrong, it’s exploitative. And it needs to end,” Hawley said.
Collectively Americans owe more than $930 billion in credit card debt.
Sanders’ press release recalls that, in 2022, credit card companies generated $130 billion “in interest and fees.” It also notes that the average household in America that has credit card debt “has more $21,000 in debt to pay back.”
Hawley heralded the “bipartisan” bill as the logical follow-up to a campaign promise made by then-candidate Trump late in his bid for the White House last September.
Trump first introduced the proposal while at a rally on Long Island in New York to roughly 16,000 supporters.
"We're going to cap it at around 10%. We can't let them make 25 and 30%," he said to massive cheers. "While working Americans catch up, we're going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates.”
The Catholic Church has long taught that usury, or the practice of lending money at “oppressive” or “immoderate” interest rates, is a sin. At the same time, the Church has not clarified what specific interest rate might constitute a sinful amount. Presently, the average interest rate for credit cards in the US is 21.5 percent.
Sanders drew attention to the practice of usury in his own press release.
“Usurious credit card interest rates and sky-high fees have allowed credit card companies to make enormous profits and pay their executives exorbitant compensation packages,” he said.
Sanders noted that Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have made $67.5, $44.3, and $33.8 billion dollars in profits, respectively, over the past five years.
A Wall Street Journal article published on Wednesday argued that the Hawley-Sanders bill is a form of “price controls” and that any effort to save the American people money by capping interest rates will just be passed onto them in other ways.
Meanwhile, the Teamsters labor union, which notably did not endorse Democrat Kamala Harris for president last year, applauded the bill in an X post.
“Big banks are ripping off Americans by charging outrageously high credit card interest rates. This must end!” the group said.
In 2023, Dr. Levi Russell spoke to LifeSite about efforts he is taking to help pay off debts for the American people as an act of charity.
Russell is a professor at the University of Kansas’ School of Business who also runs the Leonine Institute for Catholic Social Teaching.
Russell told LifeSite that “usury is one of the most pernicious evils that Catholic Social Teaching can address.” He also said he hopes the Institute will raise enough funds so it can help alleviate “onerous debt for those least able to service it.”
To learn more about the Leonine Institute and its debt-relief program, click here.
