GOP Looks To Reverse The Radical Economic Agenda Of The Biden Administration
Even though it’s never a good idea to divide out the spoils of war before winning, the Republican congressional leadership seems to be headed in that direction.
Key members have been discreetly planning ways to make life difficult for the Biden administration, particularly on its hardline economic agenda, because they are so convinced they will win the majority in the House and perhaps the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Yes, Republicans will have a difficult time passing new legislation, even in the best-case scenario (winning both chambers). They will most certainly lack a veto-proof majority in the Senate and still require President Biden’s signature.
However, sources close to the GOP leadership tell me that strategies are being developed to criticize economic policies that were implemented while Biden and the Democrats had a two-year, catastrophic majority in Congress.
Again, nothing groundbreaking, but Republicans believe they can influence the conversation. Put bills on Sleepy Joe’s desk urging him to halt his crusade against domestic oil production, which has contributed to a major rise in inflation, and others urging him to relax his anti-business regulation agenda, which has stifled growth as the economy enters a downturn.
They will use Congress’s power of the purse (no more stimulus checks or tax increases) to control spending and promote some growth. They will obstruct left-leaning nominees for important Cabinet and regulatory posts that require Senate approval (bye-bye to far-left telecom lawyer Gigi Sohn at the FCC).
The agency’s chair, Gary Gensler, a former Wall Street banker and professor, was chosen by Sleepy Joe almost two years ago with the intention of shielding investors against con artists.
As a matter of fact, Gensler is changing the SEC in ways that even moderate Democrats on Wall Street could have foreseen. He has declared an all-out assault on the cryptocurrency sector, which is preventing innovation since creators of digital coins based on blockchain technology are unsure if they will face legal action from the SEC.
Because progressives believe Wall Street is generating too much money, he wants to change the stock market’s structure, which on the surface seems to be operating just fine. The worst of it is probably not even that.
He and his Democratic commission coworkers approved a ridiculous set of requirements put out by the Nasdaq stock exchange that is meant to force every listed company to divulge information and comply with progressive board diversity goals. (Noticeably excluded: All those Chinese corporations registered on the Nasdaq exchange sneaked in a loophole where they can forego appointing members of the nation’s downtrodden ethnic minorities.)
He now wants to standardize the Nasdaq model throughout corporate America. In addition to disclosing the racial and cultural composition of their employees, Gensler wants public firms to make extensive disclosures in documents to investors about how they are decreasing their carbon footprint.
It’s unclear how any of this contributes to the SEC’s primary goal of safeguarding investors or results in better-managed businesses. However, with Democrats in power, Gensler is moving forward at full speed in his efforts to curry favor with progressives, especially his patron, left-leaning Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Gensler hopes to replace Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary when she departs as predicted in 2019.
I’ve been told that the Gensler Treasury potential is eliminated by a Republican congressional sweep. The GOP claims that his drastic restructuring of the agency will be the subject of hearings in the Senate.
The House Financial Services Committee, which would be chaired by North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry, will examine him and his deputies and will also conduct hearings. Gensler and his lackeys won’t have as much time to mess with the markets if they are kept on the Hill.
Eliminating ESG
Plans are also in place in the Senate to attach “riders” to budget measures that must pass in order to exclude Gensler’s ESG/diversity-related content. Biden will have to decide whether to sign spending legislation and consent to the partial defunding of SEC operations or risk a parliamentary impasse.
The corporate supporters of the Democratic Party’s progressive economic agenda will be the subject of additional hearings. Sen. Pat Toomey, a retiring Republican from Pennsylvania, has been asking businesses involved in environmental, social, and governance investing for information because he thinks it to be politically and socially divisive and a significant moneymaker for Wall Street.
Toomey and other prominent Republicans fear that this investment strategy has compelled businesses to take progressive stances on the environment and other divisive issues at precisely the wrong time. Due to Biden’s anti-drilling energy policy, inflation and gas prices were already on the rise by the end of 2021 as pandemic lockdowns came to an end.
Oil reserves were further depleted and pricing pressure increased as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Asset managers promoting ESG standards threatened to pull money out of energy providers that didn’t further reduce production, which made an already terrible situation exponentially worse.
Republicans will have the authority to subpoena large asset managers once they gain the majority, and I’ve been informed that the goal is to force Wall Street businesses to provide information and defend their policies in front of the public.
Of course, if the GOP loses on Tuesday, everything is off. If the GOP wins simply the House, it will be more difficult to restrain Biden’s leftward economic swing.
But Republicans are planning big, so let’s prepare ready to fight if they’re correct!
