The impossible has happened. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (the House of Representatives’ punchy progressive freshman), Bernie Sanders (the country’s favorite Democratic Socialist), and Tucker Carlson (Fox News host) … agree on something. AOC and Sanders recently unveiled a plan to target predatory lenders (or loan sharks), and Carlson was surprisingly on board.
According to The Hill, Carlson, a virulent critic of both politicians, praised them both on his show Friday night, saying:
“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.”
Naturally, Carlson padded his praise with ample criticism, but simple agreement is big from a Fox News host, whose obsessive coverage of AOC has caused many to wonder why so many resources would be dedicated to a rookie in the political game.
Here’s the screenshot, since he deleted it. pic.twitter.com/i8P2VxnO3a
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) November 16, 2018
The measure would cap credit card interest rates at 15 percent (with the current median rate being around 21.36 percent). Carlson also opined on the destructive nature of credit card debt, a topic both Sanders and AOC take a keen interest in:
“High interest rates exploit the weak. Credit card debt destroys people — not just chronically irresponsible people but good people, decent people,” Carlson said.
One of the worst offenders of keeping people in poverty is payday loans. Sold as the idea of a loan with extraordinarily high interest but a short repayment schedule, payday loans can seem attractive to Americans in a bind.
However, a 2016 Center for Responsible Lending report found that loan sharks could inflate the interest rate on these loans to as high as 662%.
Though the agreement between the three was likely confined to this one instance, if the growing debt crisis in the country is bad enough for a Fox News host to agree with a Democratic Socialist and a progressive, then it’s a problem worth solving.
Feature image provided via Flickr by Gage Skidmore
