Senator Bernie Sanders details the areas where he is willing to work with Donald Trump
Senator Bernie Sanders explains where he is willing to work with President-elect Trump and how those policies would improve the economic well-being of American households.
On Saturday’s episode of the New York Times podcast, The Daily host Michael Barbaro interviewed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders about Donald Trump’s victory and the failures of the Democratic Party that led to that outcome.
That interview covers many topics related to the election fallout. At one point, Barbaro asks Sanders if he would be willing to work with the President-elect to get his agenda through Congress. The Vermont leader is clear in his response that he believes Donald Trump’s analysis of why the working class is in the position it is in is wrong, but that if Trump and the Republicans in Congress bring forward legislation to improve the living standards of working-class people, he will support them. An example given by Sanders where he sees room to collaborate is based on Trump’s campaign promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent.
Sanders posted a similar message on X, formally known as Twitter, which Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, a strong supporter of the President-elect, echoed.
Sanders’ response highlights his willingness to work with the Republican adminstration on policies where his political framework leads him to believe that the material reality for the working class with improve. Reducing interest rates protects those reliant on a credit card from egrious interest rates that Sanders argues “all big banks to make record profits by ripping off Americans.”
Currently, the average interest rate associated with a credit card sits above 20 percent, which can make life very challenging with credit card holders carrying a balance from month to month. A survey conducted by Bankrate this year found that fifty percent of credit card holders are carrying a balance, with roughly a third of respondents reporting that inflation and higher interest rates had “made their credit card burden worse since 2022.”
Credit card debt grows in the US
The data shows that more credit card holders are carrying a balance at a time when the the average APR (interest rate applied to credit card balances) is hovering around 21.7 percent. These high rates push people further into debt as many can only pay the interest, meaning the balance is carried for another month. Compared to 2019, the amount spent paying interest (aside from mortgages) has skyrocketed by 59 percent to around half a trillion dollars, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Overall credit card debt hit record breaking levels this year, reaching $1.17 trillion. Overall, the New York Federal Reserve Bank also reported that household debt, not including mortgages, sat at $4.96 trillion.