Warren on Trump and Affordability

All right, welcome back, everybody. President Trump reached out to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren for a conversation that the White House called productive. Joining us right now with the details of how that conversation came about and maybe some areas where they can work together is Senator Elizabeth Warren. She is the lead Democrat on the banking committee. And Senator, thank you for being with us. It almost sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit that the two of you actually spoke and had something that the White House called productive. First of all, how did this conversation come about? It was after a speech that you had given that was actually pretty fiery. That's right. I had just given a speech about the future of the Democratic Party. And the basic point that I made in the speech is that Donald Trump had promised for an entire year in the run up to the twenty twenty four election that on day one he would lower costs for American families. He gets elected. And the very first interview he says on day one that he will lower costs for American families and that that's why he got elected. And yet here we are a year in and the cost of groceries is up. The cost of utilities is up. The cost of housing is up. The cost of health care is up, up, up. And all of those costs are up because of policies that Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress have pushed on our economy. So the argument I was making in the speech is it's time for Democrats to jump in to hold Donald Trump and the Republicans accountable for these higher costs for American families and then make a choice as we go forward. We can take our economic agenda and sand it down, narrow it down to make it more acceptable to billionaire donors, or we can actually go full throated on behalf of the American people and make bold proposals and demonstrate that we will get in there and fight for them. But this was all about lowering costs for American families, because that's what Democrats are going to do. And that's what the election of twenty twenty six is going to be about. So shortly afterwards, you get a call from the president. Were you surprised what happened? Yes, I was surprised. In fact, I did not recognize the phone number. And so the question then is he raises the point about a cap on credit card interest rates, something that had come up in the speech and that I've been working on for years and that is trying to get interest rates down. And he said he wanted to work on that. And I said, great, let's let's get something done, because my point was and I made this point in the speech, he had not lifted a finger to try to get something through on credit card interest rate caps. And then while I had him, I said, you know, there's something else you could do just right away. We need to bring down the cost of housing. And the way we do that is to increase housing supply all across this country. We're three million units of housing short and we need urban housing, rural housing, housing for first time home buyers, housing for renters, housing for seniors, housing for people with disabilities. So I had worked with Chairman Tim Scott, the Republican chair of the banking committee. We put together a bill that had 40 proposals in it. Every one of them aimed toward increasing supply, making it easier to get approvals, more on manufactured housing, passed the Senate unanimously, unanimously, and yet goes over to the House and the House Republicans won't move it at all, gets tangled up over there. And I said, Mr. President, you want to help bring down the cost of housing, light a fire under your House Republicans, get them to move this bill. Let's get it signed into law. And let's get started now on a first step on lowering housing costs. So a lot to talk about. I want to go back to credit cards just for a moment, because there is a study by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's suggesting that a 10% cap could make up to 80% of customers of credit cards in America unprofitable at the current lending rates and credit limits, which suggests that there would be a meaningful reduction in the amount of credit potentially made available to customers if something like this were to go into effect. What do you make of that? Well, first, obviously, I want to take a look at their data, but I also just want to start with the big picture here. Is there anybody defending 36% interest rate on credit cards or 28% interest on credit cards? Anybody out there who isn't paid by the industry that's putting out those credit cards? And do keep in mind right now, there are a lot of community banks, there are a lot of credit unions that are putting out credit cards at much, much lower interest rates. But what do the credit card company giants say? They say, oh, no, you can't touch credit card interest rates. No matter what, it will be the end of the world. We will shut down credit cards. They go on and on and on. And basically, it's the same song they sang over what would happen if the CFPB put some caps on overdraft fees? What would happen if the CFPB put caps on fees on credit cards? The credit card companies literally make billions of dollars. Last year, they made $150 billion in profits off the credit cards that American families are holding. So we have some choices to make. Do the investors and the corporate executives keep that $150 billion, or does some chunk of that go back to hardworking families who are just trying to pay their mortgage, just trying to pay for groceries every month? Senator, cumulatively, prices rose 22% in the Biden administration, so much, in fact, that real average wages were lower when Biden left the office than when he came in. Inflation was today 2.7%. It's still too high, obviously. But how are you blaming Trump's policies on the affordability crisis when you're talking about 2.7% versus 22%? Well, let's talk about what's happened. And that is that Trump's tariffs have driven up prices. Trump's chaos from the tariffs and other changes have driven up prices. Trump's energy policies have driven up prices. Price of utilities, take a look around. And Trump's decisions, along with the Republican Party, to cut access to health care has driven up the cost of health care for some families double and even triple. So we're talking about Trump policies, Trump policies that have driven up costs for American families. Just pick one little piece out of that. Have you observed what's happening to home mortgage foreclosures? Do you know that since Donald Trump was sworn in, home mortgage foreclosures have gone up 21 percent? So, yeah, there have been a lot of policies that Donald Trump and the Republicans have been following for a year now, and it is showing up in the cost that people pay. I was trying to do the I was trying to do the composite of putting everything together instead of picking individual things. And that's 2.7% versus a high of 9% during the Biden administration. Oil's down at least. Most prices don't drop, Senator. You know, the Fed looks for a 2 percent inflation rate. That's the target. So prices continue to rise every single year because we don't want deflation. So 2.7, while not great, is nothing close to what we had under under the Democratic administration. You know, Joe, what you should do, you should go lecture to every American family around the country who is saying they feel under enormous economic stress. Eighty percent of Americans say I'm worrying about whether or not I can make it to the end of the month on my paycheck. I'm worried about whether or not I can send my kids to school. I'm worried about whether or not I will ever have a chance to retire. American families are mashed to the wall on prices. They are not able to take their paychecks and stretch them far enough and build some real economic security. And part of that is because Donald Trump in the one year that he has been in office, after promising how many times during the election, at least hundreds of times promising to lower costs on day one. The cost that families have to deal with up close and personal every day, those costs, groceries, utilities, housing, health care, those costs are up. And it's putting a squeeze on American families. You can go tell them it's not, but I don't think they're going to believe you. I'm trying to read the room here. Do you get the sense that you and President Trump will actually be working on things together, or do you think that this was just talk and that no action will come of it? I don't know. You'd have to ask Donald Trump. I'm ready to go. I've got the legislation ready to go. We've got the housing bill that we've already gotten all the way through the Senate. I've worked with every Republican to get that done. My job is to do anything I can to lower costs for American families. And the Democratic Party is ready to go. We stand behind that. The question is, right now, all the Republicans have done is raise costs for American families. Donald Trump says, no, he wants to be in the business of lowering those costs. My answer is talk is cheap. But if he's really ready to put up and get something done, then let's do it. You said you didn't recognize the phone number when it came in. Did you save the number into your contacts? You know, it really was one of those moments. I don't usually pick up the phone when I don't recognize the number. And I thought, hey, I just come out of giving this speech. And I thought, eh, 202. You can put a special ringtone on there, Senator. I've seen it on Landman when his wife calls on Landman. It's just really scary. I think you can shop. It's a great touch. Senator Warren, thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you for having me.