As President Biden meets with ticket company executives emphasizing the administration’s commitment to eliminating unnecessary junk fees, here’s your reminder that MAGA Republicans would rather cozy up with and protect the corporations that are saddling families with higher costs than end this financial burden for hardworking Americans.

President Biden is committed to eliminating the junk fees that have saddled America’s hardworking families for years. 

NPR: “Several ticket sales and venue companies, including Live Nation Entertainment, will be pledging to eliminate ‘junk fees’ at a meeting with President Biden on Thursday.

“Biden pledged in his State of the Union speech in February to try to do more to eliminate hiding fees and surcharges. After the address, Live Nation Entertainment, formed from a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, expressed interest in offering all-in, upfront pricing on its site and is now committing to do so starting in September, the White House said.”

Rather than provide relief for hardworking families, Tim Scott has mocked President Biden’s efforts to take on big corporations in order to eliminate junk fees — calling it “socialism.” 

Scott: “So the truth of the matter is that we need solutions for the American people. And it’s not a bunch of fees that will be eliminated by the president chatting fee control, income control, price control. It sounds more like socialism than free markets and capitalism that led to the lowest level of poverty, frankly, in the history of our country just a few years ago.”

In Congress, MAGA House Republicans refuse to even acknowledge the existence of junk fees — all while pocketing large contributions from the very companies that saddle working families with junk fees. 

CNBC: “GOP lawmakers in the hearing criticized the Biden administration’s push to eradicate ‘junk fees,’ largely regulated by the CFPB. Such fees constitute surcharges that companies levy for consumer goods and services.”

The New Republic: “‘Technically, junk fees don’t exist, OK? That’s a figment of Rohit Chopra’s imagination,’ Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer told The New Republic on Monday afternoon. ‘It’s a made-up word for a made-up authority that he’s got,’ continued the Missouri Republican, referring to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra.”

“On the other hand, during his seven terms in Congress, Luetkemeyer has been on the take for millions in contributions from insurance, financial services, and utilities companies—industries long known to saddle consumers with hidden costs and, to borrow a term, junk fees.

“Luetkemeyer is not alone in raking in campaign cash from industries that Chopra and the CFPB seek to regulate on behalf of American consumers. North Carolina GOP Congressman Patrick McHenry, the new chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has also raked in millions during his career in the House of Representatives from the industries over which his committee has direct jurisdiction: nearly $2.7 million from the securities and investment sectors, nearly $2 million from the insurance industry, and more, according to OpenSecrets.org.”