SENS. BERNIE SANDERS AND JOSH HAWLEY: Cap credit card interest rates at 10%

In his "Divine Comedy," Italian poet Dante Alighieri reserved a special place in the Seventh Circle of Hell for people who charged usurious interest rates. Seven hundred years later, "usury" doesn’t come up much in common parlance, but the problem hasn’t gone away. Last year, both Republicans and Democrats campaigned on providing economic relief to hard-working Americans, particularly with regard to crippling credit card debt. For too long, too-big-to-fail banks have made huge profits by charging outrageously high credit card interest rates. This needs to end. That’s why we’ve introduced legislation to immediately cap credit card interest rates at a maximum of 10%.   

Americans are drowning in a record-breaking $1.17 trillion in credit card debt. Thanks to inflation and a sluggish economy, many families have been forced to charge basics like groceries, gasoline and even rent to their credit cards, racking up deep debt. It’s unsustainable — and credit card companies know it. That’s why they’ve hiked interest rates so dramatically. 

Meanwhile, these companies are getting richer and richer. In 2022 alone, they made an incredible $130 billion in interest and fees after mailing some three billion solicitations urging Americans to sign up for their credit cards. 

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