Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a religious reference on Twitter to promote a billOpens a New Window. she is co-sponsoring.
She also appears to refer to the advancement of anti-abortion bills this week in Alabama and Missouri, saying Republicans only use the Bible as support when it furthers their agendas.
Usury – aka high interest – happens to be explicitly denounced in the Bible (& in many other religions).
Looking forward to having the religious right uphold their principles + sign onto my bill. ?
Unless of course they’re only invoking religion to punish women + queer people. https://t.co/h7FxTaMxKb
Advertisement— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 17, 2019
Meanwhile, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is introducing the Senate version of the Loan Shark Prevention Act, wrote an op-ed for CNN, also invoking a Bible reference.
“If you read the tenets of the major religions throughout history, whether it is Christianity, Judaism or Islam, what you will find is a universal moral condemnation to usury,” Sanders wrote. “In ‘The Divine Comedy,’ Dante reserved a special place in the Seventh Circle of Hell for people who charged usurious interest rates.”
The pair of lawmakers announced the bill last week, which – in addition to capping credit card interest rates at 15 percent – proposed the idea of postal banking
According to data from Creditcards.com, as cited by The Washington Post, the median interest rate was recently recorded at 21.36 percent – compared with 12.62 percent 10 years ago.
“That means Americans are paying even more than that [21 percent],” Sanders noted, adding that banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve at a rate of 2.5 percent.
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