MSNBC "Interview With Senator Bernie Sanders" - Transcript

Interview

Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

MS. GUTHRIE: Joining us now from Burlington, Vermont is Senator Bernard Sanders, who says that institutions accepting bailout money should cap rates at 15 percent.

Well, sir, I'm sure I can hear the banks just loving that particular idea. You know, I think in all seriousness, they'd say, you know, "We're under some strain, too." Isn't capping rates perhaps going a little bit too far?

SEN. SANDERS: Well, let me just tell you, most people right now don't have a lot of confidence or really concern about what the banks are saying. The banks now are getting $700 billion from taxpayers. They're getting over $2 trillion in zero-interest loans. And the American people, the people of my state of Vermont who are writing to me, are tired of being ripped off. And the credibility of the financial institutions in this country today is a little bit less than zero.

So the issue that we should be talking about is the one, how do we stop the outrageous interest rates that we're currently seeing -- rates which are 20 (percent), 25 (percent), 30 percent; then you have predatory lending, which is even higher than that. So my view is there should be a cap on interest rates similar, by the way, to what has gone on for decades with credit unions, where it is 15 percent except under certain extraordinary circumstances where it goes up to 18 percent.

MS. GUTHRIE: Senator, you saw yesterday the president had some of these credit-card executives over to the White House. Do you think he used too much of a light touch with them? You seem pretty fired up about this.

SEN. SANDERS: Well, it is a good start. I was on the Financial Services Committee in the House for 16 years. This is an issue that we dealt with, and I think what the president appropriately was talking about is ending the -- what we call the bait-and-switch solicitation. As I'm sure you're aware and all of your viewers are aware, we have all recieved huge numbers of solicitations. You know those ones with zero interest rates, "apply now"? You know those ones, right?

MS. GUTHRIE: Yes.

SEN. SANDERS: Well, the credit-card companies have sent out, I think in -- a couple of a years ago, 4 billion in one year. And what they do is they entice you to come in, forgetting to say that on page four in very small print they can essentially change their rates at any time for any reason. So we want to do away with that and we want to do away with other chicanery that exists right now in those solicitations. That's a step forward.

But the real bottom line is what I am hearing from people in my own state and in fact all over this country, is that institutions like Bank of America and the other large banks are arbitrarily raising interest rates to outrageous levels. And that's an issue that we really must deal with.

MS. GUTHRIE: All right, Senator. Before I let you go -- and I should mention you're joining us by Skype, so we're using a little bit of technology there -- of course, you're an independent in the Senate, but have described yourself as a socialist. And I wonder what you think about all of those critics of the president saying he's a socialist.

SEN. SANDERS: Well, President Obama is not a socialist, as a matter of fact. What he is attempting to do, after eight years of the disastrous Bush administration, is in fact beginning to look after the needs of the middle class and working families, rather than just the wealthy and the powerful.

MS. GUTHRIE: All right. Senator Sanders, thank you so much for your time this afternoon via Skype from up there in Vermont. Appreciate it.

SEN. SANDERS: Thank you.

Source