Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-CortezGOP leaders face new calls to boot Greene Joe Crowley to register as lobbyist for recording artists Democratic leaders discussed restraining order for Ocasio-Cortez against Greene: report MORE (D-N.Y.) joined with Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersSenate competitiveness bill includes B authorization for Bezos space company Sanders wants government to get 'piece' of US semiconductor companies in exchange for aid Poll: 51 percent oppose Sanders-led resolution to block weapons sales to Israel MORE (I-Vt.) on Thursday to propose new restraints on predatory lenders — and she may boost his 2020 prospects, too. Ocasio-Cortez was an organizer on Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign and shares much of his political worldview. ADVERTISEMENT A reminder of those ties could prove potent for Sanders, who faces more competition for progressive voters this election cycle, from rivals such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenOn The Money: Biden administration launches trade dispute against Canadian dairy industry | Warren urges Biden to replace Fed's Quarles Warren urges Biden to replace Fed's Quarles in testy exchange Warren offers bill to increase IRS budget to .5 billion MORE (D-Mass. ), than he did in 2016. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenAmerican held in Russia contracts COVID-19 after denied vaccine Biden defends waiving sanctions against Nord Stream Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE, running a more centrist campaign, has shot into an early polling lead. Ocasio-Cortez told CNN in a hallway interview Thursday at the Capitol that she was "entertaining" the idea of making an endorsement in the primary but that "it's not going to be for a while." She spoke positively of both Sanders and Warren. But even supporters of other Democrats agree that AOC, as she is widely known, could help Sanders merely by appearing alongside him as she did Thursday. “Having someone who is the equivalent of a rock star on your side is never a bad thing,” said Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state legislator who is backing Sen. Kamala Harris Kamala HarrisBiden, Bass press for police reform after meeting Floyd family Biden, Harris condemn surge in antisemitic incidents Mexican president: FAA safety downgrade meant to benefit US carriers MORE (D-Calif.) in the primary. Sellers, who is African American, added that Sanders still faces challenges with nonwhite voters but “anytime AOC wants to help you, it’s a hell of a lot better than if she doesn’t.” Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most famous Democrats in the country just six months after her election to the House. She has a formidable social media presence, draws abundant media coverage and is the primary subject of a Netflix documentary. She and Sanders announced their new proposal during a Facebook Live event on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Their legislation would cap interest rates on credit cards and other consumer loans at 15 percent, except in unusual circumstances. They also propose allowing post offices to offer basic banking services. Among other benefits, this would enable checks to be cashed by people without traditional bank accounts, and without hefty commissions being charged. For both politicians, the legislation fits with their overarching political narrative — that financial institutions have too much power and that the game is rigged against working people. During their Facebook Live announcement, Sanders blasted “grotesque and disgusting behavior” on the part of predatory lenders, while Ocasio-Cortez invoked the writer James Baldwin’s maxim that it is expensive to be poor. While that kind of rhetoric sparks angry pushback from conservatives, that will hardly worry Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez. They are not in the business of placating Republicans. “What is the downside?” liberal activist Jonathan Tasini asked rhetorically, adding with a laugh, “I suppose they might not get too many contributions from the CEOs of credit card companies.” Tasini was a national surrogate for Sanders in 2016 and donated to Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign last year. Democratic strategist Jess McIntosh agreed with Tasini's observation. “Republicans are going to go nuts about it, but they are going to go nuts about everything,” she said. “You can’t base your own strategy around whether someone else is going to dishonestly criticize you.” Sanders’s move might have another motive, too. The proposed legislation clarifies the divide between him and Biden. In a Monmouth University poll of New Hampshire residents released Thursday, Biden led his closest competitor, Sanders, by a 2 to 1 margin: 36 percent of respondents favored the former vice president, while 18 percent backed the Vermont senator. Progressives believe that one of Biden’s several vulnerabilities is his closeness to the credit card industry. Warren has already hit Biden for his support, more than a decade ago, of a bill favored by credit card companies that made it harder for individuals to declare bankruptcy. During Biden’s years as a senator representing Delaware — a hub of the credit card industry — MBNA Corp. was one of his biggest contributors. (MBNA, a credit card company, was acquired by Bank of America in 2006 and later sold on to the British-based Lloyds Banking Group.) Last month, Warren said that when she was fighting for consumers on the bankruptcy-related bill, “Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies.” Charles Chamberlain, the chair of progressive group Democracy for America, said that the Sanders’s proposal with Ocasio-Cortez “exposes one of his other primary challengers. Joe Biden is not good on credit cards and credit card fees, he is not good on bankruptcy and he is not good when it comes to his close relationship with the Wall Street banks.” Waleed Shahid, communications director of Justice Democrats — a group founded by former Sanders staffers that also played a central role in Ocasio-Cortez’s rise — said the issue was one of several “where a lot of progressives differ from Joe Biden ... Joe Biden has a lot of vulnerabilities that the public doesn’t know that much about.” Shahid said he did not know if Ocasio-Cortez would make an endorsement in the primary. But he added, “She has enormous weight in the Democratic Party right now. ... It would be a big deal.” Biden and Sanders would probably agree — for very different reasons.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders will speak at a Green New Deal rally at Howard University on Monday that also features Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, organizers said. The event, organized by the Sunrise Movement, gives the 2020 contender a high-profile platform to court the environmental left. Sanders' planned appearance comes as Democratic candidates are starting to spar over their climate plans and recent polls show environmental issues taking on greater importance for Democratic voters than inprior elections. Campaigns are still only beginning to roll out plans, but early splits have emerged over the Green New Deal, which calls for a rapid transition from carbon emissions associated with global warming by 2030, and the role fossil fuels should play in the transition. On Thursday, both Sanders and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee criticized a reported plan by Joe Biden to seek a "middle ground" policy that would focus on advancing Obama-era regulations and potentially include a role for natural gas and coal. "There is no 'middle ground' when it comes to climate policy," Sanders tweeted. "If we don't commit to fully transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels, we will doom future generations. Fighting climate change must be our priority, whether fossil fuel billionaires like it or not." The Sunrise Movement, which warned Biden’s reported approach would be "a death sentence for our generation" in a statement, has so far set a high bar for candidates. The group lavished praise on a plan by Inslee to set targets of making new vehicles and buildings zero-emission by 2030 and transitioning to clean electricity by 2035. But they delivered a mixed response to a plan by Beto O’Rourke last month to invest $1.5 trillion in green infrastructure and research, thanking him for pledging to make the issue as his top priority but criticizing him for setting a goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 rather than 2030. Experts have generally been skeptical a Green New Deal could achieve its goals within 10 years. The speaking schedule for Monday's event was not finalized and it’s possible more senators, including other presidential contenders, will attend. The group is using the rally to unveil a plan to pressure 2020 Democrats to make the Green New Deal's goals a focus of their campaign, headlined by a planned demonstration at the second Democratic debate this July in Detroit. Environmental groups, which range from grassroots activists to established groups like the League of Conservation Voters to organizations backed by megadonors Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, are pushing candidates to release plans and commit to pursuing them early in their presidency.<doc-sep>Tucker Carlson tonight made it clear he still considers Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “demagogues” and “childish socialists,” but he commended them for an issue they’re focusing on this week. This week Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation called the Loan Shark Prevention Act, which would, in part, cap credit card interest rates at 15 percent. “For a lot of people, that would make a huge difference,” Carlson said. He elaborated: “No doubt many Republicans in Congress will oppose this bill, if only because of who sponsored it. Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are obviously demagogues. They don’t mean half of what they say, the other half they don’t really understand. They’re not impressive. But on this one issue, they are absolutely, indisputably right. There’s a reason why the world’s great religions condemn usury, and why societies have restricted it for thousands of years. High interest rates exploit the weak. Credit card debt destroys people––not just chronically irresponsible people, but good people, decent people. Probably some people you know. Maybe a lot of people you know. What the banks are doing is disgusting and it’s wrong. So the real question is why did it fall to a couple of childish socialists to point this out?” He said this shouldn’t even be a liberal issue when Republicans have supported similar legislation in the past. But now, he added, they’re “siding with big banks over their voters.” You can watch above, via Fox News. [image via screengrab] Have a tip we should know? [email protected]<doc-sep>
Two Democratic Socialists are teaming up to sponsor companion bills in the House and the Senate that would, among other things, call for a cap of 15 percent on credit card interest rates and provide basic banking services at U.S. post offices. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced their bills on a Facebook live event on Thursday, both calling it a “moral” issue. “It’s not just an economic issue,it’s a moral issue — charging people outrageously high-interest rates,” said Sanders, who is also trying for a second time to become president of the United States. “The reason this is a moral issue is because we should not be using people’s misfortune and using people’s income status as a basis for extortion and as a basis for predatory lending,” Ocasio-Cortez said. There is no reason a person should pay more than 15% interest in the United States. It’s common sense – in fact, we had these Usury laws until the 70s. (Max interest rates are record-high for ppl with excellent credit, too.) It’s a debt trap for working people + it has to end. https://t.co/tYf4J892KQ — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 9, 2019 The pair said high credit card interest rates disproportionately affect the poor and the poor also don’t have access to banking. They used words like “disgusting,” “grotesque,” and “hoodlum” to describe banks and Wall Street. “You got all these guys in three-piece suits who are now the loan shark hoodlums that we used to see in the movies,” Sanders said. The proposed bills — which even Sanders has admitted have little chance of passing as is in the Republican-controlled Senate — also call on “ending payday lending scams,” and allowing states to set credit card interest rates. The bill proposes that post offices would provide basic checking and savings accounts, low-interest loans, debit cards, ATMs, check cashing, money wiring services, and online banking services. “What we’re really setting out a vision of what a moral America looks like; what a moral economy looks like,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Sanders and Cortez’s proposal notes that banks can borrow money from the federal reserve for 2.5 percent but charge an average of 17.71 percent on credit cards. Some department stores charge as much as 27 percent in credit card interest rates. The 25-minute Facebook live event ended with the two engaging in an awkward hug as they wave goodbye. Follow Penny Starr on Twitter