President Joe Biden has issued the first veto of his presidency by denying a GOP-sponsored bill that would prevent money managers of retirement funds from using climate change and other woke policies to guide their investment strategies.
Biden’s administration pushed a Labor Department rule covering environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing that would encourage fund managers to include woke ideals in criteria for investing, regardless of the financial advisability of such investing. Republicans said that policy puts retirees at risk because investments should only be made for fiscal reasons, not ideological reasons. Their bi-partisan bill would cancel Biden’s sop to the green energy industry and Biden’s ESG rules.
But in his veto statement, Biden claimed it was Republicans, not him, who was putting retirement savings “at risk” and preventing plan managers from being able to “protect your hard-earned savings.” He also pinpointed Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a particular Republican at fault.
The GOP-controlled House passed the ESG bill this month and the U.S. Senate followed that up with a 50-46 vote to send it to Biden’s desk.
“Two Senate Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) joined Republicans in opposing the Biden administration policy, saying they felt it was a case of government overreach that would impose a policy agenda on Americans’ retirement accounts,” The Hill newspaper reported.
“The President vetoed the bill because it jeopardizes the hard-earned life savings of cops, firefighters, teachers, and other workers — all in service of an extreme, MAGA Republican ideology,” White House representative Robyn Patterson said on Monday.
It is clear that Congress does not have the votes to override Biden’s veto because they would need the support of two-thirds of each chamber to put the bill into law above the veto.
Sen. Mike Braun (R, IN) blasted the president for blocking the bi-partisan bill meant to safeguard America’s retirement funds.
“Today, President Biden used his first veto to reject a bipartisan majority consensus in the House and Senate that Americans’ retirement savings should be invested to get the best return, not to support a political agenda,” Braun said, adding that Biden was “doubling down on prioritizing a progressive agenda over Americans’ retirements and the will of Congress.”
In a tweet, Braun added that he won’t stop pushing to end Biden’s ESG investing rules.
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton also took a swipe at Biden saying, “Joe Biden’s first veto as president: letting retirement fund managers prioritize ESG scams over the best-performing investments.”
House Republicans also slammed Biden in a tweet saying, “Your retirement savings are your money, not Joe Biden’s,” and added, “Wall Street should maximize your returns, not fund Biden’s Far Left political agenda.”
House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) took aim at Biden and warned about his “new, woke, ESG regulation, which could use your retirement savings to fund political activism.”
Biden’s tone-deaf veto comes on the heels of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank which operated in exactly the political manner that Biden’s ESG rules encourage. SVB invested in all manner of woke policies and investments but went under after failing to fulfill their fiduciary duties by pushing woke politics instead of making sound investment decisions.
And now, Biden wants to SVB all our retirement funds to help put money in the pockets of his left-wing, green energy, climate change, and BLM political allies.
Author: Warner Todd Huston
Source: Western Journal: Biden Issues First Veto as President - This Is How It Impacts You
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