WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following op-ed by Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03), Ranking Member on the House Small Business Committee and Consumer Protection & Financial Institutions Subcommittee appeared on FoxBusiness.com this morning.

“’Say what you want about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Market doesn’t always ‘know best.’"

“Those are the words of Cornell University Law professor Saule Omarova, which she tweeted on March 31, 2019. According to her public statements, Omarova is from Kazakhstan, which was a part of the Soviet Union until the communist state’s failure and dissolution. 

“Before moving to the United States, Omarova was the proud recipient of the ‘Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship’ in Russia. 

“Now, the newest addition to her resume is President Biden’s nominee for the comptroller of the currency, the primary bank regulator in this country. 

“An expressed yearning for communist law and awards bearing the name of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution was probably enough to secure her nomination by the Biden administration.

“If not, Omarova’s arguments earlier this year in support of personal bank accounts held by the Fed while acknowledging they would ‘end banking as we know it’ must have cinched it.

“Fed bank accounts is one of many radical and reckless policies being pushed by the administration and its allies in Congress.

“For those of us who still believe in personal and economic freedom, this nomination is extremely concerning. As the comptroller, Omarova would oversee the chartering, regulating and supervising of all national banks.

“Putting a person who romanticizes communist control in a position to oversee large swaths of the U.S. economy is even more dangerous than it is foolish.

“It would be easy to dismiss this nomination as a one-off, a gesture simply to appease an increasingly radical base. However, that would be incorrect.

“Government control of the financial system is no longer considered a radical idea in the Democratic Party but is instead the expressed goal.

“Just this year, Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and other Democrats in the House of Representatives have put forward serious efforts to: allow the U.S. Postal Service (the same one that still struggles with delivering mail after 245 years) to accept deposits and make loans; house a public credit bureau at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, essentially giving it the authority to decide who is worthy of a loan; turn the Small Business Administration into a direct business lender that undercuts community banks and credit unions; and establish personal bank accounts at the Federal Reserve – an idea Omarova adamantly supports.

“On top of that, the Biden administration, led by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is working hard to install a new regime at the IRS that will monitor nearly every single bank account in the country.

“The much talked about regime would force financial institutions to report the inflows and outflows of accounts that have held at least $600 at any given time.

“The IRS, which has proven willing to leak U.S. citizens’ personal tax information to push political agendas and target specific citizen organizations that do not agree with the administration’s ideology, would be monitoring nearly every single bank account held by Americans.

“These are not efforts to increase oversight of the financial services industry or stabilize the economy. They are not protecting consumers from an imaginary villain scheming to rob them. These are efforts engineered specifically to put the government in a position to replace the financial services industry.

“Collectively, they would give the government the power to decide who is worthy of a loan, make loans to those deemed acceptable, house the bank accounts of American citizens, and monitor the dollars we spend. Putting in place at the highest levels of government true believers in state-controlled commerce is a key step toward these ends.

“It sounds unbelievable to even make these suggestions. After all, the government takeover of financial services or any industry is explicitly un-American. But the proof is right here for all of us to see.

“No one is hiding their goals. As Omarova has said, the policies she supports would ‘end banking as we know it.’

“We should take her at her word.

“While most Americans are too busy with their families and daily lives to worry much about the comptroller or financial regulators in general, they will undoubtedly feel the lasting effects of their flawed policies.

“If the Biden administration continues to push radical partisans into consequential positions and maintains its current path toward the government takeover of our financial sector, every American will suffer the disastrous consequences. Just like the ‘old USSR.’”

Click HERE to read the full op-ed on FoxBusiness.com.