(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump’s plan to institute a one-year freeze on usurious credit card rates is drawing opposition from Republican leaders in Congress.
“Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one-year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%,” Trump announced on January 9 via a Truth Social post.
He also criticized “Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration.” He said Americans are being “ripped off” by the companies.
Such a proposal would likely have to go through Congress, although some bills already exist to the similar effect.
Yet, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he does not see a likely path for a proposal to pass.
“Like everything else we, you know, you would need legislation to do something like that, and we’d have a lot of work to build consensus around it, but you got to be very careful if you go forward in that,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “In our zeal to bring down costs, you don’t want to have negative secondary effects.”
He did say Congress would look into the issue.
Johnson repeated a talking point that has been used by critics of the proposal.
The speaker, as reported by The Hill, “said, one of the things that Trump and others ‘probably had not thought through’ at first glance is the fact that credit card companies could stop lending money and possibly cap how much individuals borrow at a low amount.”
“That would have a negative effect on a lot of people who work on revolving credit,” Johnson said. “So, it’s something that we got to be very deliberate about.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune made a similar statement. The Republican leader “warned that capping credit card interest rates could ‘probably deprive an awful lot of people of access to credit around the country,'” Fox News reported.
“Credit cards will probably become debit cards,” Thune said. “So, yeah, I mean, that’s not something I’m out there advocating for.”
Advocates for allowing unchecked interest rates argue, implicitly, that the easy access to debt is fueling the economy.
“Purchase volume on consumer credit cards totaled $3.6 trillion in 2024, up from roughly $2.2 trillion in 2020, and accounted for 12% of the U.S. economy,” America’s Credit Unions stated in opposition to the proposal. “Retailers of all sizes, including small businesses on Main Street, would see a significant decline in sales under a rate cap as consumers lose access to affordable credit.”
The trade association opposes the 10 percent cap, while at the same time pointing out they offer lower interest rates than big banks.
“As of January 2026, credit unions’ average interest rate for basic classic credit cards stood at 12.87% compared to banks’ average interest rate of 16.07%,” the group stated. “This trend holds true for most other credit cards, including credit cards associated with special rewards programs.”
Idea has bipartisan backing, rooted in Catholic Church teaching
On the other hand, proponents of capping credit card interest rates include populist Republican Senator Josh Hawley and Senator Bernie Sanders, a “democratic socialist” who caucuses with the Democratic Party.
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) recently signaled his support for Trump’s proposal.
“Credit cards were meant to be a tool — not a trap,” Marshall told Fox News in a statement. “Right now, millions of hard-working Americans are getting crushed by outrageous interest rates that make it nearly impossible to pay down debt and get ahead.”
Trump first introduced the proposal while at a rally on Long Island in New York to roughly 16,000 supporters, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
“We’re going to cap it at around 10%. We can’t let them make 25 and 30%,” he said to massive cheers. “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates.”
The Catholic Church has long taught that usury, or the practice of lending money at “oppressive” or “immoderate” interest rates, is a sin. At the same time, the Church has not clarified what specific interest rate might constitute a sinful amount. Presently, the average interest rate for credit cards in the U.S. is 21.5 percent.
In October, Pope Leo XIV affirmed that usury is a grave, or serious, sin. Usurious lenders, the Pope said, take advantage of those in need.
“There is a form of usury that apparently seems to want to help those in financial difficulty, but which soon reveals itself for what it is: a suffocating burden,” he told the National Anti-Usury Council. “The consequences are paid especially by fragile people, such as those who are victims of gambling.”
“However, it also affects those who have to face difficult moments, such as for instance extraordinary medical treatment or unexpected expenses beyond their means or those of their families,” Pope Leo XIV said. “What first presents itself as a helping hand in reality becomes, in the long run, a torment.”