President Biden delivered remarks on Wednesday on eliminating junk fees.
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00:00 you waiting.
00:01 Thank you, Becky, for that introduction
00:03 and for sharing your story.
00:06 That's familiar to so many families.
00:09 This gets down to a basic problem,
00:12 a basic circumstance, just about fairness --
00:14 just about simple fairness.
00:16 You know, folks are being --
00:18 tired of being taken advantage of
00:21 and being played for suckers.
00:23 That's why I'm here with the Director
00:25 of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
00:28 Rohit Chopra. Where are you, Rohit?
00:31 There you are. Stand up. Let people see you are.
00:33 (Applause.)
00:36 And the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission,
00:38 Lena Khan. Lena, stand up.
00:39 (Applause.)
00:45 They're members of the Competition Council
00:48 that I created to promote competition
00:50 across the economy and lower costs for families.
00:52 And I'm not going to introduce everybody,
00:54 but, you know, we wouldn't be getting anywhere
00:56 without the incredible support of the members of Congress
00:59 who are here today.
01:00 And we may have to go back and actually change the law,
01:04 change the circumstances.
01:05 And so, I'm counting on you.
01:07 Anyway, would all the members of Congress stand up
01:09 so everybody can see you?
01:11 (Applause.)
01:19 In any fight I'm in, that's the team I want on my side.
01:22 Look, one of the key things I've asked the Council to tackle
01:26 are the unfair fees known as "junk fees" --
01:30 those hidden charges that companies sneak into your bill
01:33 to make you pay more because they can --
01:36 just simply because they can.
01:38 Charges that are taking real money
01:40 out of the pockets of American families.
01:42 These junk fees can add up hundreds of dollars
01:45 weighing down family budgets,
01:47 making it harder to pay family bills.
01:49 These junk fees may not matter to the wealthy,
01:52 but they sure matter to working folks in homes
01:55 like the one I grew up in.
01:57 The way I think about it is the way my dad talked about it
02:00 and the way so many of you at home
02:02 talk about it around the kitchen table.
02:04 How much are your monthly bills?
02:07 And after they're all paid,
02:09 how much do you have left for necessities?
02:11 It's enough -- is there enough left over
02:14 just to give you a little bit of breathing room?
02:16 Well, these junk fees suck up all that breathing room,
02:19 among other things.
02:21 Now, think of today. How many folks are asking,
02:24 how much more do they have to pay
02:25 to cover those hidden junk fees that really add up?
02:28 You know, over the past two years,
02:31 my administration has taken,
02:32 with the help of the members of Congress,
02:34 a number of steps to crack down on unfair
02:36 and deceptive junk fees in banking,
02:39 hotels, concert, airlines, retail housing --
02:43 or, excuse me, rental housing, cable, Internet, healthcare --
02:47 a whole range of issues. A whole range of them.
02:50 For example, two summers ago,
02:53 if your flight was canceled or delayed,
02:55 almost no major airline guaranteed anything
02:59 other than costing you a fee to rebook that,
03:02 even if it was their fault. You had to pay a fee to rebook.
03:05 Now, 10 airlines rebook for free.
03:09 And I'm looking to get the law passed so none of them can --
03:14 they all have to do that.
03:17 And that -- that's a win for consumers.
03:19 Other companies have also responded to my call for action.
03:23 And adopted so-called "all-in, up-front pricing."
03:26 That's where companies fully disclose their fees up front
03:30 when you start -- when you start shopping.
03:32 And there's no real surprise at the end when you check out.
03:36 This summer, I hosted business leaders at an event
03:39 to announce the voluntary changes
03:41 that companies like Airbnb, Dice,
03:44 and others were making to provide customers
03:46 with an all-in, up-front pricing.
03:49 So there's no surprise.
03:51 Tens of millions of Americans have already benefited from this.
03:55 And that's progress.
03:57 Today, I'm proud to announce that my administration
03:59 is taking our most comprehensive action ever
04:02 to eliminate junk fees and -- and fees in industries
04:05 and sectors across the board, across the entire economy.
04:09 You know, if these rules are finalized,
04:12 they won't just be voluntarily; they'll be made mandatory.
04:16 Mandatory. Because we do more than embarrass the company;
04:19 we make them mandatory. (Applause.)
04:21 But first, here's how.
04:23 The Federal Trade Commission is proposing a new rule
04:26 that would ban hidden fees across the economy
04:29 and require companies to show consumers
04:31 the all-in pricing up front -- up front.
04:36 (Applause.)
04:37 And that includes what these fees are for,
04:40 how much they amount to in full, and whether they are refundable.
04:45 Research shows that without -- without realizing it,
04:49 folks can end up paying as much as 20 percent more
04:52 because of hidden junk fees than they would have paid
04:55 if they could see the full price up front
04:58 and compare it with other options.
05:00 It's wrong. It's wrong.
05:01 It's just taking advantage of people.
05:03 And it makes it harder for honest businesses
05:05 who are trying to do the right thing
05:07 to compete with dishonest companies
05:09 who trick customers into thinking their price are lower
05:12 when they, in fact, are not.
05:15 Look, if this proposed rule is finalized as proposed,
05:19 the FTC would have the power to impose financial penalties
05:23 on companies that don't disclose their full up-front price
05:27 and secure refunds for customers who have been defrauded
05:30 by companies charging hidden fees.
05:32 Second, consumer --
05:35 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
05:37 is banning bank fees and credit unions for charging fees
05:43 for basic service like checking your account balance --
05:47 checking your account balance, retrieving old bank records,
05:51 or looking up your balance on a loan.
05:54 You know, some banks charge as much as $30
05:58 for these services every time you call.
06:00 It's outrageous. It's really outrageous.
06:03 And today, they're making clear that the --
06:06 we're making clear these fees are now illegal.
06:09 Look, we're not stopping there.
06:12 There are tens of billions of dollars
06:14 in other junk fees across the economy and have direct --
06:17 I've directed my administration to crack down on them as well.
06:20 For example, later this month,
06:22 the CFPB will -- will propose another new rule
06:26 that would require banks to make it easier
06:29 for customers to switch banks --
06:30 something banks have made really difficult for folks to do.
06:34 This new rule would increase competition
06:36 and deter junk fees.
06:38 All of these actions are going to make a real difference
06:41 in people's lives. We're already seeing how.
06:44 Today, for example, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
06:47 released a report showing that, since I took office,
06:50 nearly two-thirds of the largest banks
06:52 have eliminated bounce-check fees entirely.
06:56 That was a lot of money. (Applause.)
07:00 And by the way, they calculated these bounce-check fees
07:03 for consumers have declined by nearly $2 billion.
07:07 This isn't -- this isn't chump change.
07:10 This is a lot of money -- by $2 billion.
07:12 And that's close to a 90 percent reduction.
07:15 In addition, we've secured $140 million in refunds
07:20 for consumers who are charged illegal junk fees by these banks.
07:24 And look, and we're also sending new guidance
07:27 to every federal agency
07:29 on how they can promote real competition in their work.
07:32 You know, and as we take these actions --
07:36 I continue to call on Congress to pass what my friends
07:39 in the front row here mostly support --
07:41 Junk Fee -- the Junk Fee Pre- --
07:43 Junk Fee Prevention Act. Hard to say.
07:47 Anyway, but all kidding aside, I'm asking Congress
07:50 to take the action so this makes it a matter of law.
07:54 Today's actions are part of my broader economic vision
07:57 to move from trickle-down economics
08:00 to what everyone in The Wall Street Journal
08:02 and Financial Times began to call "binomics."
08:05 I don't think they meant it as a compliment at first.
08:07 (Laughter and applause.)
08:09 It's about growing the economy from the middle out
08:11 and the bottom up, not the top down.
08:13 Last week's jobs report shows binomics is working.
08:17 We added 336,000 jobs last month.
08:21 (Applause.)
08:22 We've created more than --
08:23 we've created more than 13,900,000 new jobs
08:29 since I've taken office. That's more than any President
08:31 ever has in all of history.
08:33 That's more than -- look.
08:35 And the unemployment rate has stayed below 4 percent
08:39 for 20 straight months -- the longest stretch in 50 years.
08:43 (Applause.)
08:44 So, look, and inflation continues to fall,
08:47 down nearly 60 percent from last summer.
08:49 And now we have the lowest inflation
08:50 of any major economy in the world,
08:53 and we're going to make it lower.
08:54 (Applause.)
08:56 And in August, we announced the first 10 prescription drugs
08:59 that Medicare selected for negotiation
09:02 under the Inflation Reduction Act.
09:04 That's a fancy way of saying, for many years,
09:06 a big pharma blocked us along the way.
09:07 They kept prescription drug prices high
09:11 and increased their profits,
09:12 extended patents on their existing drugs,
09:15 and it suppressed the competition
09:16 instead of innovating.
09:17 By the way, you order a prescription drug
09:20 made in the United States of America,
09:22 you buy it in New York City or Washington,
09:25 D.C. or Omaha, Nebraska, it costs a hell of a lot more
09:29 than the same exact drug by the same company
09:32 sold in Toronto, Canada, London, Rome,
09:36 anywhere else in the world.
09:37 Same exact drug. You know, playing games with pricing
09:41 so they could charge whatever they want.
09:43 But this time, we finally beat big pharma.
09:48 (Applause.)
09:51 How long have we been trying to do this?
09:53 This has been going on a long time.
09:55 None of the women in the front row here
09:56 have been around for more than two or three years,
09:58 but some of the guys have been here for a hell of a long time.
10:00 But all kidding aside, think about it.
10:02 We've been fighting this fight for a long, long time,
10:06 long before I was President or Vice President.
10:08 We passed the Inflation Reduction Act
10:10 with no help from any of our Republican friends.
10:13 Every single one voted against it,
10:15 but maybe they all see the light.
10:16 And among many important things it does,
10:19 it finally gives Medicare the ability to negotiate
10:22 lower prescription drug prices like they can do in the --
10:26 with Veterans Affairs, like they do now.
10:29 That's not all. And by the way,
10:30 that not only saves the consumer,
10:33 it reduces the federal budget. Because guess what?
10:37 We don't have to pay that money out --
10:39 taxpayers' money -- to reward these companies for overcharging.
10:42 (Applause.)
10:44 It's something everybody forgets. It's over --
10:46 well over a billion do- -- anyway,
10:48 I won't get into how much it saved,
10:49 but I've kept you sitting too long.
10:51 But seniors on Medicare are now paying
10:54 as much as $400 a month for insulin.
10:57 Well, now they're just going to pay $35 a month.
10:59 And I might know, it costs these companies $10
11:04 to make the insulin -- $10.
11:07 To package it, you might be able to get it to $12.
11:09 And they're still getting paid $35,
11:12 which is almost a 300 percent increase --
11:14 more than a 300 percent increase.
11:16 I don't get why -- anyway.
11:18 We're also capping total out-of-pocket costs
11:22 for seniors on Medicare at $2,000 a year,
11:26 even for expensive cancer drugs.
11:28 And it costs $10,000, $12,000, $14,000 a year.
11:30 No matter what your prescription drug costs are beginning
11:34 next year, no matter how much they are,
11:37 no senior is going to have to pay more than $2,000.
11:39 (Applause.)
11:40 Two thousand dollars. And it matters.
11:43 Look, let me close with this. When I ran for President,
11:47 I promised we would not continue the trickle-down economics
11:49 of the past. Because here's the simple truth.
11:52 Trickle-down economics represent,
11:54 at the moment, we walked away from how this country's
11:57 middle class was built, in my view.
11:59 Not a lot trickle-down on my dad's kitchen table,
12:03 I don't recall.
12:04 Bidenomics is another way of saying,
12:06 "Restoring the American Dream."
12:08 Trickle-down limited the dream to those at the top.
12:11 But I believe that every American willing to do hard work
12:15 should be able to achieve it no matter where they live
12:18 and every part of the country.
12:20 That's the American Dream. That's Bidenomics.
12:23 And that's why I can honestly say I've never been more
12:25 optimistic about America's future.
12:27 We just have to remember who we are.
12:29 We're the United States of America, for God's sake.
12:32 There's nothing -- and I mean this sincerely --
12:34 there's nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.
12:38 So, God bless you all. Thank you for the strong support.
12:42 And may God protect our troops. Thank you. Thank you.
12:45 (Applause.)