‘Queen’ Elizabeth Gives Orders to Hillary
October 18 | Posted by mrossol | Big Govt, Hillary Clinton, Losing Freedom, The LeftWSJ 10/17/2016
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As Hillary Clinton expands her lead in the polls, Democrats are angling to influence her choices for policy-making jobs. Witness Elizabeth Warren’s extraordinary demand on Friday that President Obama demote Mary Jo White as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Massachusetts Senator made her demand in a letter to the President that is remarkable for its vitriol toward someone nominated by a President of her own party. The Bay State progressive accuses the SEC chair of “brazen conduct” in choosing not to require new disclosures from public corporations regarding their political activities.
She also rants that Ms. White is “ignoring the SEC’s core mission of investor protection” and trying to reduce the amount of information that investors receive. And she demands that he “immediately designate another SEC commissioner as Chair of the agency,” which is supposed to be independent.
The idea that Ms. White is reducing public disclosures must be news to everyone now struggling to comply with new reporting rules on asset management, CEO pay ratios, conflict minerals, derivatives, and more. The Warren charge springs from the fact that, like every other person who has run the modern SEC, Ms. White has wondered if disclosures can be simplified to make it easier for investors to find the information they need. As for ignoring investor protection, the record shows that in the 12 months ending in September, the SEC brought more enforcement cases than in any other year in its history.
But the Warren letter really has nothing to do with disclosure or investor protection. Ms. Warren has never forgiven the SEC chief for her 2013 decision not to turn the agency into an IRS-style political targeting operation.
Under pressure from then-Rep. Barney Frank and liberal activists, Ms. White’s predecessor Mary Schapiro overrode objections from career staff and put a new political disclosure rule on the SEC’s regulatory agenda. Commission staff rightly cautioned that the agency’s job is to ensure the disclosure of information that is relevant and material to those making investment decisions, not to regulate political speech.
But having failed to get its way in Congress or the courts, the left wants to use the regulatory power of the SEC to cut off corporate support for the Chamber of Commerce, trade associations and other groups that oppose more taxes and regulation. The idea is to impose heavy reporting requirements on business—but not on labor unions—for providing financial support to groups engaged in public debate. Left-wing activists will then take the information and use it to beat up CEOs or boycott companies that donate.
Ms. Warren’s letter claims that “corporations are flooding our elections with millions of dollars in secret political contributions, drowning out the voices of working families.” But corporate Pac donations to candidates or to Super Pacs must be disclosed under current law. Notice how she doesn’t target billionaire progressive donors like Tom Steyer or George Soros—perhaps because Politico reported on the weekend that Hillary “Clinton has built the biggest big-money operation ever.”
To her great credit, Ms. White dropped the partisan political disclosure idea from the SEC’s to-do list, and progressives have been carping ever since. Ms. White has stood firm against this threat to the SEC’s integrity, and White House spokesman Eric Schultz says the President continues to believe Ms. White ‘is the right leader’ for the job, according to the Associated Press.
But with Mr. Obama a short-timer, Ms. Warren’s broadside is really aimed at Mrs. Clinton. It’s a warning that she should replace Ms. White with a new chair who will impose the political rule, and that anyone Mrs. Clinton nominates as SEC chair won’t make it through a Democratic Senate without the approval of Queen Elizabeth.
This Warren gauntlet is already the talk of Wall Street Democrats who are wondering how they can please her highness and get back in government. The New Republic reports that Peter Orszag, an expert in the Beltway-Broadway revolving door, has suggested a trade-off of giving Ms. Warren her way on personnel in return for her tolerating a tax reform-public works spending deal with House Republicans.
All of which shows the sway the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren left will have over a Clinton Presidency. Get ready for much more anti-business law-writing by decree.
When Elizabeth Warren first came to “fame” outside The Bay State, I had sympathy for some of her views. Lately, however, she has become “unhinged” and demanding, exhibiting both boorish and elitist behavior: sad loss of potential and opportunity.