An adviser to President Joe Biden expressed caution about former President Donald Trump‘s proposal to put a temporary cap of about 10% on credit card interest rates.
For Jared Bernstein, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, economists “have to be careful with things that people throw out there without a lot of thought or consideration.”
“You have to think about what kind of impact that might have,” Bernstein told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “There’s risk factors that go into that kind of a policy that might make it harder for a lot of people who need credit to be able to get it because companies won’t sell it to them. So I think you have to be careful about unintended consequences.”
Bernstein, who has advised Biden since he was vice president, then underscored the president’s economic record as the economy becomes a critical matter to the election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This administration has taken a very forward-looking and very, I think, pretty deep run at many of these issues, helping to lower credit card fees, helping to make one of the, I think, most effective Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus, something that the Trump administration consistently tried to shut down and gut,” he said. “So when it comes to protecting consumers, this administration, I think, has a track record that isn’t just about throwing off ideas that may or may not be about valuable.”
Trump made the proposal during a rally in Uniondale, New York, on Wednesday but did not provide any specifics concerning the policy.
“While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates,” Trump said. “We’re going to cap it at around 10%. We can’t let them make 25 and 30%.”
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Such a proposal would require congressional approval, and the requisite legislation is unlikely to pass Congress, particularly given opposition from banks, which earn approximately $120 billion in credit card interest and fees every year.
Trump’s first term was relatively bank-friendly and anti-regulation, with experts downplaying the prospect of the proposal becoming law.