Why Washington Is Cracking Down On The Credit Card Industry

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Thursday, January 15th, 2026. I'm Dave Anthony. Credit card companies don't like it, but President Trump and some in Congress want to put a cap on interest rates and reduce fees. Between the president's credit card bill and my credit card bill, we would bring down the price of gas and groceries one to two percent. We would save Americans probably $300 a month. We speak with Republican Senator Roger Marshall. I'm Jessica Rosenthal. Sports, politics, world events, all of it's being bet on using new prediction market platforms. But some in Congress are worried insider trading may be happening on these platforms at high levels of government. These markets do present new novel areas of bad behavior, and that's why you need cops on the beat to go after that behavior. But the wrong answer is to say, well, let's just hope it goes away. New innovations never go away. And I'm former Vice President Mike Pence. I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown.

We are being ripped off by credit card companies, charging us high interest rates. That's what President Trump maintains, telling reporters, I have no idea that they're paying 30 percent. No way. We're putting a one-year cap at 10 percent, and that's it. They know it. They've really abused the public. The credit card companies have totally abused. I'm not going to let it happen. And at a Trump truth social post the other day, he wrote that effective January 20th, the... One year anniversary of his return to the White House, he wants that 10% cap to take effect, and he has some support on the left and right. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren says if the president will actually fight for that, Congress could pass a bill capping interest rates. There's also legislation the president supports called the Credit Card Competition Act, co-sponsored by Senator Roger Marshall. I'm excited to talk about bringing the cost of living down. You know, the president is locked in on this. Senator Marshall is a Republican from Kansas. I've been locked in on it for several years. There's only two credit card companies and a handful of Wall Street banks that control over 80% of that industry. And because of that, because these little oligopolis, if you will, they're able to charge interest rates of 20 to 30%. Look, that's predatory loaning, in my humble opinion. That's something that the mob rates would offer as well. So the president wants to put a 10% cap. for one year's time and let those people out there that are struggling. The average American family has $7,000 of debt they're carrying forward month to month. Between the president's credit card bill and my credit card bill, we would bring down the price of gas and groceries 1 to 2%. We would save Americans probably $300 a month. Now, President Trump, in a true social post earlier this week, called you a fantastic senator, so I'm sure that was good to read. I want to get into your bill in a moment, but let's stick with this 10% cap. There are certainly people, and you're not surprised, within the credit card industry, who are not a fan of the proposal. And one of the things that they argue is that when this and if this gets to 10%, the companies are going to a... prove fewer lines of credit for fewer customers and therefore cut off credit access to lower and middle-income Americans that you say would be helped by the cut in the interest rate itself. Yeah, well, that's a joke, right? No one's going to, that's an ignorant statement. The credit card companies have a net profit margin of 45 and 55% apiece. The banks have net profit margins of 20 to 30%. They've got so much wiggle room here. Look, I'm kind of a Dave Ramsey fan. And if a bank is wanting to charge you 15% or 20% interest, they're probably telling you you shouldn't borrow that money. So just try to encourage people to live within their means. And if you weren't having to pay the bank or pay the credit card all this interest, you'd have enough money left to pay.

The chairman of what's called the Electronic Payments Coalition, he has put out a statement, study after study from economists and think tanks show these untested mandates will not lead to lower prices. And instead, your bill, Senator, he wrote, would line the pockets of corporate mega stores and hurt Main Street small businesses and eliminate the credit card rewards Americans rely on. Well, again, I think that's pretty ignorant to say that. Convenience stores, grocery stores operate at a margin of about a half of 1% or 1%. So they're competing with each other. You drive down Main Street and you say, you know, here's, you compare the price of gases and they're all trying to get a penny under each other. So there's so much competition in that industry that these savings will be passed on. You know, a lot of these convenience stores grocery store would say next to labor, these swipe fees are the biggest expense. they have. These swipe fees are more than their utility, more than they're paying for health insurance for their employees. So they basically work on a cost plus a half a percent margin. Walmart, Costco, all those, you know, Amazon, they're all working on a very thin margin and high volume. So I think study after studies show that it's going to actually be passed down to American consumers. So there, you know, of course, the person you're talking to there has a pretty big bias. Now, you refer to Visa and MasterCard. Where do American Express and say Discover fit into this equation? Yeah, so they're a closed system. They would be immune from this. So they're a closed system in the sense that they're the bank and the credit card network that does the processing. So they would be excluded from it. I think it's kind of an apples and oranges game. So there's nothing going on with them that I think would hurt things. It's a membership, but the closed system versus the two credit card companies, MasterCard and Visa, look, they were cannon glove. They're a monopoly. and then they can control so many banks at the same time. We have had a difficult time with partisanship, certainly in the second Trump era, Democrats and Republicans battling even on the affordability issue. And yet you are working across the aisle on this. And there are Republicans and Democrats both who support the 10% cap. I mean, Senator Elizabeth Warren, progressive, who President Trump has certainly called names. They are working together potentially on the 10% cap. How is this a bipartisan approach going on now? It's going on great. And what people don't realize, I've co-lit a bipartisan prayer breakfast for two years now. And then this prayer breakfast in the Senate has been going on since President Eisenhower days. 20 of us get together. one morning a week. We pray for each other. We know each other. So Dick Durbin and I have a close friendship because of that. Peter Welch is another person that's on our credit card bill, a Democrat from Vermont. Peter and I work out together. Not that we plan on it, but we just kind of have the same biarrhythm that every afternoon about 4 o'clock, our staffs kick us out of our office and say, you need to go work out. And so there are absolutely, there's only 100 of us. You would be shocked of the friendships that we do have.

And I know the left and right media is going to say, oh, my gosh, Senator Marshall calls Elizabeth Warren Lizzie. You know, we do have friendships. We're real people. And sometimes the cameras just kind of pull us apart. Yeah. Well, obviously, in the public, there's been a lot of battling back and forth. Now, as far as I want to ask you about one other thing that has been very, very difficult to solve. with Republicans versus Democrats has been health care. The subsidies have expired at the end of last year, the tax credits that were enhanced for Obamacare, and millions of Americans are going to get a higher coverage cost. You have talked to us before about you want to make reforms to Obamacare, but where are we on this? Are we going to get anywhere in 2026? Well, Dave, we take a step forward. We take two steps backwards, but I'm going to go back to what Republicans and Democrats agree on. And this is our price tag bill that would force... every health care provider to show you up front. You could go to their website. You need a knee surgery. You need an MRI. Then it would show you the price and your outcome. And then you have to pay that 20%. You have a $5,000 deductible. We're trying to turn patients into customers again. We're trying to promote competition. There's that word again. Speaking of oligopolis, that's what health care has become. So I do think there's a lot of us that are rallying around our price tag bill. I think there's a lot of us rallying around prescription drugs. reform by reform on the pharmacy benefit managers. Three of them control 80% of the industry, 85% of the industry, actually. So we're trying to promote competition, and that's going to help everybody out. Our price tag bills would save American families $1,000 a month, not just people on Obamacare, but people that are on Medicare, people that get their insurance through their boss as well, through their employer, I should say. So that's what we agree upon. I think we're struggling to figure out how to fix, you know, Obamacare, but I remain optimities. There are solutions out there. What has a better chance of passing this year, in your opinion, some of these health care proposals or your credit card competition act? Well, that's a great question. So on the credit card competition act and on the 10%, you're on Trump time now. President Trump called me Friday night. I was driving home in a snowstorm. And so he's calling me Friday night at 7 p.m. You know it's a priority for him. I think it's a matter of finding a vehicle to get that accomplished. I think the health care is a little stickier. And it'll take us, you know, I'm hoping this summer we can get some major health care reform that's going to lower the cost of health care, but bring back the quality competition. lowers the prices but increases the quality. So we're preaching a message of more competition in all these, whether it's banking or prescription drugs or health care, we need more competition. Senator Roger Marshall, Republican from Kansas, always great to have you. Thank you for being here. Dave, great to be with you. Happy New Year to everybody.

2026 marks 250 years of America. And throughout the year, Bill Hammer takes listeners on a journey through the 250 most impactful moments in American history. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcasts.com. This is former Vice President Mike Pence with your Fox News commentary coming up. You may have heard of polymarket, a platform that allows you to bet on future events in sports, politics, geopolitics, really anything you can think of. In October 2024, President Trump referenced it rather than any big polling data as reason for his optimism. That's gambling polls. They call it the polypoll or something I've never heard of. Polymarket. And we're, I guess, at 64 to 38, 36, something like that. So that's how bad. I don't know what the hell it means, but it means that we're doing pretty well. Polymarket.com is not available to people located inside the U.S. Polymarket.U.S. is rolling out now. But people abroad, including Americans, using the platform in 2024, accurately predicted the results of the U.S. election, including bets on specific swing states. Fast forward to January 2nd of this year, hours before the raid resulting in the arrest of Venezuela's de facto leader Nicholas Maduro, someone placed a bet on policy. market that Maduro would be captured by the end of January. The user ended up making more than $400,000 after Maduro was arrested. Now, New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres has introduced new legislation meant to address insider trading on these platforms, telling CNN this week, if you're both a government insider and a participant in the prediction market, you now have a perverse incentive to advocate for policy decisions that will personally benefit you. That kind of prediction market profiteering has no place in the ranks of the federal government. Now, we don't know who that person was. Trading is publicly viewable on the blockchain, but users are often anonymous. In late 2024, the home of Polymarket's founder, Shane Copland, was raided by the FBI. He was accused of letting U.S.-based residents bet on the election. Since then, the company has gained CFTC approval to operate a U.S.-based platform.Polymarket.us and the other popular platform, Kalshi, exist under rules governing. commodity markets and have popped up outside of legalized sports gambling that took hold in many states after Supreme Court ruling in 2018. You basically download the software and the wisdom of the crowds. are incentivized by if they get it right, they win money. If they get it wrong, they lose money. Chris John Carlo is the former chairman of the U.S. Commodities Future Trading Commission and is on Polymarkets Advisory Board. They're incentivized to go out and gather information and make their best educated bet. And then all of that information is then available to anybody to look at whether you're involved in the transaction or not, which is why Polymarket primarily makes revenue on selling the data. It's the data that comes out of this that provides that type of weather report certainty to all these uncertain events in our lives. The data, meaning so if polymarket then what gives you? Reports that to the Wall Street Journal, reports that to Bloomberg, reports that to CNBC. You go on with any news source these days, and there are the polymarket odds on given events. Okay, talk to me about how this works because you go on the website and it's like.

It's like a grid and you get to see all these different different bets. It's totally transparent. If somebody signs up and creates, can they create their own bet? Like can I go on and say I, okay. Yes. That's what's really cool too. There's no bookie in the polymarket model as there are in some of these others. There's no central service that creates all the situations, the prediction situations. You can create your own. They call it a polymarket. You create your own market. And you transact directly with the other participants, not against the house. Is this, can polymarket? track its users? Is everybody working off of a blockchain accounting? You don't really know who's who. It's on a blockchain. Everything is transparent, which is why in some of these recent cases, such as the person who put the bet on the Venezuela raid or the whale that was betting on Trump or everybody can see that that's taking place. But you don't know, we don't know who that is, though, right? You don't know. That's correct. You don't know it's me. Right. But I know it's someone. Right. But if there's, okay, let's talk about that Maduro trade because this person apparently made a ton of money with that trade. Some estimates over $400,000. This highlighted those some concerns about like a form of insider trading. Does it need to be addressed? Well, so the U.S. law already addresses in commodity markets the prohibition of people who may be violating a duty to, say, an employer or Defense Department or State Department or others from doing this. And so if a person violated the law, there may be consequences for doing that. But generally... Our U.S. laws in commodity markets allow people, in fact, encourage people, believe it or not, to use information that they have unique to them in order to trade it because the primary goal of the market is to provide what's called price discovery. So let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. Let's take our American grain markets, for example. You may have a former in Pennsylvania who's the weather has been terrible and he's afraid of actually a squeeze on prices because of a supply reduction. Another farmer in Minnesota, for example, may be having a great year. Each of them are permitted to trade on their unique information about the weather they're experiencing. But isn't this particular case different, though, because it was just hours beforehand. It seemed like somebody had, and maybe we're wrong, but it definitely seemed like somebody had. And if that person, if that person violated a duty. to their employer not to disclose that information, then they are, that they operate in a legal way and they may be subject to sanction. But that's not a flaw of the platform. That's a flaw of an individual who violated an obligation not to disclose. But we don't know who that person is. Like what if the Pentagon said, hey, I want to know who that person is? Could you tell them who it is? Well, so the Pentagon will have ways of finding. I would be surprised.

if in due course that person is found because it's blockchain. Now, if that was in another non-blockchain-based system, it would be much harder to find that person. I'll give you another example, not too long ago, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. was discovered by someone, and that person made a lot of money on polymarket. Now, in that case, that person didn't violate a duty. They actually just went onto the Nobel Peace Prize website and found out that it wasn't protected. And the Nobel Prize had previously pre-staged that name of that winner to be announced later on, and this person was able to find it. The purpose of these markets is to encourage people to gather information and bring it to the marketplace so that the market reflects the truth of what might happen in the future in the same way that our commodity markets want farmers to come to the market and say, well, I think it's going to be a bad harvest. I think it's going to be a good harvest. And then the market, the wisdom of the crowds, work out what the truth is. And then we can all use that information in our daily lives. So as I was doing research for this, I realized I'm in an American state. So I can't bet on polymarket.com right now. I understand the Biden administration restricted polymarket but got the formal FCFTC approval in late 2025. And I'm now, I think I'm number like 615,000 on the waitlist for polymarket.us, which is like a different rollout right from polymarket.com. Will there be a big difference? And when is the U.S. version going to be sort of up and running to me? When will my number get called? I'm glad you asked that question. So the polymarket international non-US is a completely decentralized system. Currently, our U.S. regulatory structures are based upon centralized systems, based upon exchanges, you know, with lime columns in the front that exist in a town square somewhere. And they have to catch up to this decentralized revolution. So the polymarket U.S. marketplace will be a centralized, what we call a bookie model. with an entity in the center. Every bidder or offer will be made against that bookie. That's currently the state of play of U.S. regulation and rules, whereas the international one follows the much more sophisticated modern decentralized model. In time, I believe that the CFTC and U.S. regulation, and it's right in Congress right now with the Clarity Act, is going to recognize decentralized models as a legitimate methodology. And I think then the polymarket will become one model that Americans really take to. One of the things that really boosted polymarkets, like fame, was its accuracy in predicting the results of the 2024 election. Like, well, polling had it split in many of these swing states. The sense from Polymarket was that President Trump was going to win, I think all of them, if I recall correctly. Two things on that front. If Americans largely couldn't bet on polymarket.com. Who was betting on our election so effectively?

Well, so you can remember, Polly Market has a tremendous following worldwide. You know, the United States is, I don't know what percent of the global population, but it's really not that big. And yet the globe has been following American events. I've been in Europe for three weeks. I mean, you can't turn on the television without getting American constant, you know, constant barrage with American news. And not only did the Polly Market get the U.S. election right, it got every one of those overseas elections rights as well. Millions of people around the world. took express views as what they thought the election outcome of the elections were all over the world in addition to the United States. Why is polymarket so accurate in so many instances? If you believe in the wisdom of the crowds, that you believe that the bigger the sample size, the more accurate the results, it's just a matter of scale. and incentivization. You know, if I get a phone call, I got a busy day, the phone rings, I unmistakily answered. By the way, I'm one of the last people in the world who has a landline at home, and I answer the phone, and it's a pollster. It's like, oh, I don't want to do a poll, but, you know, maybe I do. And maybe they ask me a question about the candidate I like, who actually is a terrible candidate, but I like the person. And I want him to win, even though I don't think he'll win. And in a poll, I'm going to say, yeah, I think he's going to win. But in polymarket and in these prediction markets, if I give the wrong answer, I'm going to lose money. In fact, I'm only going to participate in that poll on a voluntary basis as opposed to an involuntary one where my landline rings. I'm only going to get involved because I actually have a strong belief as to the outcome, and I'm going to put up a sum of money that I stand to lose if I get it wrong and stand to win it. So I'm incentivized to get it right. I'm actually incentivized not only get it right, but to actually do the research to get it right. And so the reason why I think the prediction markets are so accurate, it's incentivization to go and get the right answer, incentivization to take the trouble to enter into a polymarket transaction and the sample size, which is just so much bigger than any polling is. We've seen how sports gambling has caused some concerns with prop bets, point shaving, maybe even some rigging. There's been suspicion of rigging. Should we be worried when gambling is, you know, being applied to U.S. policy or, you know, other things outside of sports? Yes. And so, you know, as a former regulator on a big advocate of smart regulation for this market. Now, I will tell you, agencies like my former agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, known as the CFTC, are really good at weeding out market fraud and manipulation in traditional markets, traditional markets like ag commodities, like energy commodities, like gold and precious metals. They are going to have to adapt to this new markets and develop their skill sets. in these new areas. I have every confidence they will. I'm hopeful that Congress gives them the added resources they need to come up to speed fast and develop the skill sets. But the answer to things like market manipulation, broad, is if we need to get smart regulation in place, not to try to suppress the innovation, hoping it will go away. That's the wrong answer. The right answer is...

When a new innovation comes, then regulation itself needs to adapt and evolve and build that around it so that the public can have confidence. And these markets do present new novel areas of bad behavior. You know, whenever any human activity is going to have bad behavior. And that's why you need cops on the beat to go after that behavior. But the wrong answer is to say, well, let's just hope it goes away. New innovations never go away. And if we get the regulation right. They can serve society rather than hurt society, and we need to get the regulation right. We will. I have every confidence we will. Chris John Carlo, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your time. Really, my pleasure. Thank you. I'm Dana Perino. This week on Perino on politics, I'm joined by managing director and partner at Beacon Global Strategies, Michael Allen. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com. Or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. It's time for your Fox News Commentary. Mike Pence. What's on your mind? For years, the people of Venezuela have endured a nightmare imposed by socialist tyranny. Under President Nicholas Maduro, a once prosperous nation was reduced to deprivation, violence, and despair. Families went hungry. Hospitals ran out of medicine. Millions fled their homes. Venezuela became a case study in how socialism destroys everything it touches. That dark chapter has come to an end. I have always believed that Maduro must go, and I will always be proud of the Trump-Pence administration's work on Venezuela. Together, we led the charge against Maduro, building an unprecedented coalition of over 60 nations and forging bipartisan consensus in Congress to recognize the illegitimacy of the dictator's power. While we ultimately fell short of our goal to free the people of Venezuela, I was heartened when President Trump ordered the military raid that captured Maduro and brought him to face justice in the United States. Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump and the professionalism of the United States Armed Forces, Maduro is gone. His grip on Venezuela has been broken and a long-suffering people now have a historic opportunity to reclaim their freedom and rebuild their nation. The progressive left and some on the populist right have criticized Trump's decision to move forward with absolute resolve in bringing Maduro to justice. The Constitution, however, vests the president with broad authority as commander-in-chief to take limited but decisive action to protect our nation. And he has an obligation to faithfully execute our nation's laws, including the criminal laws that Maduro stands accused of breaking. Presidents of both parties have exercised these authorities for generations, to deny them now would dangerously weaken future presidents and place America at greater risk. Nicholas Maduro must answer for his crimes. He must answer for the corruption that hollowed out a nation, for the violence that muzzled dissent, and for the drug trade that took the lives of countless American citizens.

Justice long delayed will finally be served. The Venezuelan people now stand at the threshold of a remarkable opportunity. They deserve a rebirth of freedom, a new Venezuela, governed by Venezuelans, rooted in the recognition of God-given liberties, committed to free markets, and sustained by free and fair elections. They deserve a future defined not by fear. but by hope. Today, thanks to President Trump and the brave men and women of our armed forces, that future is within reach. Libertad can finally be restored. And as freedom takes root in Venezuela, it will strengthen the security and prosperity across our entire hemisphere, just as America has always stood ready to do. I'm former Vice President Mike Pence. You've been listening to the Fox News Rundown. And now, stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on Amazon music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.