Central planning, never out of fashion on the left, is now more popular than ever on the right thanks to the GOP’s populist takeover. This is why a recurring effort to intervene in the credit card processing market is finding more support in the new Congress than it did in the previous one.

Interchange fees are charged by payment networks, such as Visa or Mastercard, whenever you use a credit card. Collected fees go to both the credit card processing service and the card issuer. Card issuers must maintain and improve payment networks, protect data, combat fraud, and bear the risk of debtor default. Fees help cover all of this.

Some merchants who enjoy the benefits that come with accepting credit cards as payment—namely, attracting customers who prefer this convenience—have decided they don’t like to pay the cost. So as special interests often do, they’ve turned to Washington to intervene on their behalf. Of course, they and their advocates claim this will benefit the public, since their savings would supposedly be passed on to consumers through lower prices.