ICYMI: Senator Marshall Joins KAKE Live In Studio

Wichita, KS – This morning, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. joined KAKE live in studio to discuss his bipartisan legislation, the Credit Card Competition Act. This bill fights for consumers and Kansas small businesses against the Wall Street megabanks and Visa-Mastercard’s hidden credit card swipe fees. 

Swipe fees are inflation multipliers hidden in every purchase you make at the grocery store, on school supplies, on gas and so much more. At a time when our nation is facing skyrocketing inflation, Kansas small businesses are fighting to keep their prices low for customers as Visa and Mastercard continue to raise their credit card swipe fees at the highest rate in the world. Senator Marshall’s legislation forces Visa and Mastercard to come to the table and compete with other companies in the payment processing industry. We will drive down costs for merchants and retailers by injecting competition into this market. 

You may click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview. 

Highlights from Senator Marshall’s interview include: 

On credit card swipe fees and inflation impacting Kansans: 

“Kansans are paying seven times more in swipe fees than folks in the European Union are. So just think about it, whenever you go to make a purchase, you’re sending a tax of 2% to 4% to Wall Street. So two credit card companies and four Wall Street banks control the industry.”  

“So just think about this, you’re going to go this morning, you’re going to get a cup of coffee on your way to work. It costs $2 for a cup of coffee, 2% tax on that, you stop and fill up with gas. And maybe you get $50 of gas, 2% of that’s going to go to these Wall Street banks as well. 

“These swipe fees have gotten so high now that these companies, these retail companies, just down on Main Street are paying more in swipe fees than they do for utilities or they do for the health care for their employees.”

“I think the beauty of our legislation is we’re working bipartisan, with Dick Durbin…What we want to do is introduce competition. So right now you take your credit card in for that cup of coffee today, the retailer only has the choice of Mastercard or Visa. And what we’re going to insist upon is they put another choice that the retailer can use, and when we introduce that competition, it’s going to drive the price down hopefully to what the European Union is doing. So [the European Union] is paying about 0.4% versus again Americans are paying 2% to 4%”

On Kansas state fair and Farm Bill update: 

“Some of my greatest memories, a great celebration of agriculture and really Kansas communities. We’re going to be hosting a Farm Bill event where we’re going to discuss the Farm Bill which is written every five years, so important to Kansas agriculture, but also important to communities like Wichita, where about 80% of a Farm Bill actually goes to nutrition programs, you know, think about WIC and meals on wheels and school lunches and SNAP programs as well.”