Biden’s Comptroller pick would bankrupt energy companies and nationalize banking

President Biden should withdraw his nomination of Saule Omarova to be Comptroller of the Currency — or the Senate should reject her.

Omarova, a professor at Cornell Law, said this concerning energy companies: “we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change.” She would apply that same destructive, heavy hand of government throughout our financial system.

Omarova advocates a radical transformation of banking that is tantamount to nationalization and would leave your relationship with your bank unrecognizable.

Some, such as Senator John Kennedy, have focused on Omarova’s education in the Soviet Union. This included membership in “The Young Communists” and a college thesis entitled “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in Das Kapital” which she has refused to share with the Senate. Omarova told Senators at her confirmation hearing, “I am not a Communist.”

CFACT does not hold growing up behind the Iron Curtain against people. In fact, it is usually an asset. We often look to those who grew up without freedom and its prosperity to share their hard-earned life lessons with those of us fortunate enough to have been born free.

However, the Left is trying to defend Omarova as the victim of a new McCarthyism (as if they didn’t spend the last five years shouting Russia, Russia, Russia! at people who had nothing to do with Russia).

The disqualifying problems with Omarova’s philosophy stem not from from the Socialist indoctrination she received back in the U.S.S.R., but from her immersion in the unmoored leftism flowing through American academia.

Last year Omarova laid out her philosophy of financial regulation in a law review article entitled The People’s Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy. This article is directly on point to the role of the Comptroller and disqualifies Omarova to hold the office.

Omarova advocates for nothing less than the de facto nationalization of the American banking and finance system.

In the financial world Omarova envisions private banks would no longer offer deposit accounts. We would all have a government bank account instead which the government would easily use to deposit, subtract and redistribute funds. The feds would be able to observe your smallest transaction. When the government determines it is time to stimulate the economy, funds could be “helicopter” dropped directly into those accounts deemed worthy. Omarova describes this as “QE (quantitative easing) for the people.”

Like all bad generals, Omarova is focused on fighting the last wars, the financial crisis of 2008 and the contraction of the economy due to COVID-19 shutdowns. She is all about pumping money into the economy with an unhealthy dose of left-wing redistribution along the way. Omarova needs to wake up. Deflation is no longer the threat, inflation is.

The debate should not be between pumping money into the economy via quantitative easing vs. throwing it out of “helicopters,” but rather how to restrain the growth of the money supply, as we did in the Reagan era, and get inflation back under control.

The Left’s radical plans for banking mirror their government takeover attempts on healthcare. Omarova’s anti-banking philosophy consists of incremental steps on the road to what might be termed “single banker,” analogous to the Left’s relentless push for “single payer,” socialized medicine.

At a time when the beast of inflation has been released to ravage American savings, the President should nominate and the Senate confirm only reliable central bankers focused on forcing the inflationary beast back into its cage to safeguard our system of economic freedom.

Saule Omarova should not be allowed to serve as Comptroller of our currency.