grounding patents to create prep. and then that patents has been privatized despite the fact that it's owned by the public. we refuse to enforce it. there is no reason this should be $2,000 a month. people are dying because of it. and there is no enforceable reason for it. we own the intellectual -- the core intellectual property for it. and as a result people are dying for no reason. for no reason. >> the gentlelady's time has expired. >> others who testified included physicians and hiv-aids advocates. watch the hearing tonight here on c-span at 9:00 eesh. you can also watch online at c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. is our weekly segment this about your money. today , we will talk about credit cards, specifically

proposal by the new one of the democratic candidates. we are joined by matt schulz of comparecards.com. explain what comparecards is all about. guest: good morning. thanks for having me. comparecards is a place where people can shop for credit cards of all kinds, but they can also find information on how to smartly acquire those cards and how to use them wisely. that is the key. host: how are you funded and are you financially supported by the credit card history? guest: comparecards.com gets a bounty whenever somebody successfully applies for a credit card on our site. we have relationships with a lot of the big banks, but we have a separate editorial operation

that i am part of, where we have a similar church and state divide you would find in any newsroom. here,to the topic at hand bernie sanders and alexandra reducecortez want to credit card rates to 15%. here's an article by senator sanders. banks have been ripping off americans for too long. this is from cnn.com. can you explain this plan? guest: basically, what they are trying to do is put a cap on the interest rates that credit cards can charge. right now, the only credit cards that have a rate cap in this country are credit union credit cards. by, right now, that cap,

federal law, from the federal credit union act, that set the cap at 15%. but it also built in some exceptions to where the national credit union board can, under certain circumstances, raise if it feelsve 15% like it is necessary for the financial soundness of the credit unions. basically, that rate cap has been at 18% for about 30 years. basically, they are basing this on the original letter of the law and not necessarily where rates stand at the moment. because the current credit union rate cap is 18%. host: we want to get our viewers

opinions. we will have two phone lines and split the lines regionally. if you live in the eastern or central time zones, call, (202) 748-8000. if you live in the mountain or pacific time zones, call (202) 748-8001. we look forward to your calls on this idea. a little perspective here on credit card usage and debt in the united states. from experian, one of the credit agencies, total debt on cutter cards right now, $800 billion -- on credit cards right now $800 billion. the average number of credit cards for each of us is around three. the average balance is 4200 dollars. and the number of delinquent cardholders in this country is over 30%. we want to get more of your take on these ideas being put out there. but let's hear from senator sanders first on his proposal. [video clip] now, you are looking at

a medium credit card interest 21%. that means half of the american people -- you are earning $10 an hour now you don't have enough money to take care of your family, you will be paying 22% to 25% interest rates and on top of that what is not widely go to any you will large department store and they say get our credit card but you get their credit card what you don't know is you will be paying something like 27% interest rates on that. 27%. how much do the banks borrow money? a borrow money from the fed at 2.5% and charge people 18% 25% interest rates. the poor you are the more desperate you are, the higher the interest rates are.

host: that was senator sanders joined by representative ocasio -cortez. he put it in strong figures. borrow.t -- 2.5% to what does the banking industry think of this proposal mr. schulz? guest: the banking industry is not a big fan of it. there's a lot of speculation that if this 15% cap were to come into play you would see an ,xtreme tightening of credit ofost immediately because the way banks and credit card companies price credit cards, because of the risk of the borrower, it would be difficult for banks to continue to make money off of credit cards by and large with a 15% interest rate.

sanders' senator point, he is right that the median is about 21% and typically what you see anyone who has applied for the credit card in the last few years has probably seen that box in big bold type that has a range of interest rates sometimes at the 15% but ate 14% or the top it is 24% or 25% depending on your credit worthiness. the banks do that in order to protect themselves from basically credit losses for people who don't pay money back and one of the things that could end up happening if a rate cap like this were to come into play is that instead of having that risk-based pricing those ranges that you see, it might end up being where everybody gets

charged the same rate regardless of your credit worthiness. host: here's more from the american bankers association. today they write consumers benefit from a highly competitive and vibrant credit market. it would be a mistake for the government to artificially limit choices. the specific proposal will harm consumers by restricting access to credit or those who need it the most and driving them toward less regulated more costly alternatives. that is from the american bankers association. carl is our first call from madison, mississippi for matt schulz. go ahead, carl. aller: the federal reserve, do they control the banks? host:host: when you ask about what specifically are you asking about in terms of the banks? overall do they control the banks? caller: they print the money and the banks get the money from the

federal reserve. 15%, with that be more like if a person with a 10% credit card. host: thanks for calling. can you explain the connection between the federal reserve and the credit card companies in this conversation? with --enerally virtually everybody's credit card in america is called a variable rate credit card so when the fed raises rates as they've done so many times over the last few years everybody's credit card, apr is going to go up by that quarter-point or however much they raise rates by in pretty short order within the next month or two after the announcement. that is frankly what has been driving a lot of the increase in credit card interest rates in the past three to four years

because prior to the fed beginning their campaign of raising rates credit card interest rates were largely stable for several years. they are still certainly high but we did not necessarily see as much movement upward as we've seen in the last few years. host:host: shannon calling from palm city, florida. good morning. caller: good morning thank you for taking my call. i have not had a chance to say this since he was on the program but you guys had -- i have to say what refreshing progressive voice for c-span. i enjoyed the segment. i know you guys are talking about the financial services committee and the house. i have been following them thatly and it is obvious the bankers don't need the lobbyist still working on behalf of them. if you listen to the hearings

you see different conversations between two aisles. democrats looking out for consumers doing their best in the redlining practices and push for diversity among the ceos. the republicans seem more interested in protecting large banks. i'm just curious as a lobbyist for these bankers, are these fines becoming a cost of business? host:host: let me ask you do you want to make a comment or ask a question about this credit card proposal that senator sanders and representative a conseil ocasioc-ortez -- caller:caller: i think it is wonderful. it was pretty obvious that there

needs to be more work done on behalf of the consumers instead of the bankers. the bankers are making record high profits and paying these fees and fines that are just a drop in the bucket for taking advantage of consumers and doing heinous things. have these fines just become a cost of doing business so they don't have to change their practices? host: anything you want to respond to? it is tough to speak to the fines because they are a significant thing. when it comes to dealing with credit cards there is kind of a similar ideological thing that we see play out in a lot of different areas in washington for aone side is more little more regulation and one is for letting the frame working there are valid

arguments and this is one of those areas in the credit card space where we are going to see a lot of talk and a lot of conversation between now and november 2020. host: you wrote at compare cars.com at 10 years after the credit card act eight in 10 americans -- eight in 10 americans still want some thing to be done. remind us what the credit card act did. guest:guest: the credit card act was legislation signed by president obama. the 10th anniversary is in two days. it changed the landscape of the credit card industry enormously. among the different things it did, it required many more clear disclosures for consumers from credit card industries.

it impacted what banks presents could be on college campuses, changed the requirements for how easy it was for folks under 21 to get a credit card. that is a small sample of what was involved. one thing it did not do, the big hole in the whole thing, this idea of the rate cap and knowing that the anniversary was coming up we did a little polling at compare cards and asked people well before this recent proposal came up whether they supported the concept of a rate cap and we found 88% of those who we asked said that they did. close tobout as unanimous as you're going to get in today's polarized country so i think that tells you something.

host:host: let's go to robert in alabama. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i have a comment. this rate cap goes into effect at 15% the first thing the credit card companies are going to have to do to survive is there going to have to tighten credit. raisere going to have to the credit score limits before they will issue a credit card. a fairans anybody with credit score is not going to be able to get a credit card because credit card companies can't take the risk at the lower interest rate and still make a living. this is being proposed by --gresswoman a consei >> we'll leave this discussion here as the house is set to open today's session. members will conduct one-minute speechesor