Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria to preview the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing with the CEOs of America’s largest retail banks and his letter to push back on credit card companies’ efforts to track gun purchases. Excerpts and full video are below.
On the New MCC to Track Gun Purchases:
“One of the ways, Maria, that liberals have attacked legal, constitutionally protected gun ownership is by trying to choke out their capital. Some of that is through the ESG movement, a lot of it’s due to things like the international standards, which by the way was led by a bank. Amalgamated Bank, a large liberal bank, is pushing this left-wing agenda. The problem with all of [this] is that banks are heavily regulated. They are federally insured, which is not unimportant. I think that puts them in a different category in terms of their legal requirements. So when you start pushing the value chain, if you can’t get a bank to do it, get the credit card companies, if the credit card companies won’t create this category, let’s go to the international standards. Who in the supply chain is going to stand up to this left-wing nonsense and not become a tool of the Left, but rather be the banks that we need them to be.”
On the Left-Wing Agenda of Irresponsible Fiscal Policies:
“I think once that gig was up, they had to admit even though they called it inflation reduction it was inflation enhancement. To Jamie Dimon’s point, this runaway government spending, supercharging the demand side of our economy while the supply side continues to be hurt has led to this inflation. We need to get our arms wrapped around that with regard to the ESG piece. That’s part of the problem. The left continues to use capital, use the highly regulated banking industry as well as the index industry to try and shape their policies in ways that they can’t get done through the legislative process. It’s very unfair. In my view it is illegal and that’s why I introduced the Fair Access to Banking Act. This is why I joined Senator Sullivan’s INDEX Act to make sure there’s a loud noise in the right ear of these bank presidents, CEOs, and their boards who are responding to the loud noise in their left ear through activist investors and even staff members. We need to rebalance all of this. I think, quite honestly, that the banks themselves would just soon get in the business of banking… They have enough problems there without having to deal with these highly charged political fights.”
On Climate and Economic Policy:
“I don’t know a single bank president that wants to destroy the American economy. And yet you have a lot of the people in power [who are] pushing them do exactly that because they have some fantasy that somehow tomorrow we can be at net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Never mind that they just want to transfer climate guilt to polluting countries so that they can feel better about themselves. It’s crazy. People like Jamie Dimon, Brian Moynihan, David Solomon, and others that I’ve talked to, they’re looking for real solutions to a transition that doesn’t destroy the American economy. We can provide that through modern technologies and innovation, but certainly not through regulation.”