Key Vote Alert – Senate – “NO” on Confirmation of Janet Yellen to be Secretary of the Treasury
Club for Growth strongly opposes the confirmation of Janet Yellen to be Secretary of the Treasury. Her confirmation will be considered soon in the United States Senate. The result of the vote will be included in the Club for Growth Foundation’s 2020 Congressional Scorecard.
Janet Yellen’s nomination to be Secretary of the Treasury reminds the American people of the policies that created a slow economic recovery from the Great Recession and the dismal growth during the Obama years. While she served in an “independent role” at the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, she is a partisan that has been repeatedly nominated throughout her career by Democrat Presidents Clinton, Obama, and now Biden.
In 2021, Yellen still supports the tired ideas like stimulus spending from previous administrations, but is also openly embracing new tax schemes, including her support for a carbon tax. Yellen told the Senate she is “fully supportive of effective carbon pricing and I know that the President is as well,” The plan supported by Yellen would create a $40 per metric ton carbon tax and provide for 5 percent increases each subsequent year to achieve a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2035. In the 10th year of the carbon tax, the tax would become $65.15 per metric ton, and if the plan started in 2021, the $40 carbon tax would nearly double to $79.20 per metric ton by 2035.
The carbon tax will eliminate jobs in the energy sector. Along with Biden’s executive order to ban new fracking on federal lands and his agenda to eliminate fossil fuels, it is clear the anti-energy independence policies of the Biden Administration will impact all workers and consumers. From employment levels and job creation, to transportation costs and energy efficiency policies – the sign is clear: The Biden Administration is working to enact as much of the Green New Deal as possible to change the economy forever.
Yellen’s support for Biden to rejoin the Paris Agreement is another example of the Left’s petulance toward punishing entrepreneurship and innovation in America. The Paris Agreement will destroy international competition in markets. Many businesses are highly efficient and doing great things to limit pollution in America. The Paris Agreement will cause many job creators to go out of business. Innovation in America is spurred by low levels of regulation. Additionally, the Biden Administration’s executive order to require federal agencies to reverse hundreds of deregulatory actions undertaken by the Trump Administration is an enormous economic mistake that will badly damage the U.S. economy.
Economic policies are largely administered and negotiated by top Cabinet Officials and White House staffers, including the Treasury Secretary, so this nomination is critical in the path forward for the recovery of the U.S. economy. A carbon tax will punish U.S. job creators and U.S. workers while emboldening economic international competitors.
The socialist economic schemes envisioned by the Biden Administration will bring Yellen to the negotiating table with other Cabinet Secretaries, world leaders, and Members of Congress. Yellen will work with liberals in Congress to redistribute wealth through tax increases by negotiating the rolling back of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Rather than increasing taxes, the Biden Administration should reduce the taxation burden on U.S. taxpayers.
None of these actions supported by Yellen will benefit the U.S. economy. The Biden agenda is projected to hurt economic growth in many key industries and sectors of the economy. One area that is not projected to get cut is the federal government. At a time when the economy is struggling due to a pandemic, the size, scope, and cost of the federal government has grown immensely. Americans now see the impact of government more closely through the transparency of government stifling economic liberty. Policies that allow for economic freedom and prosperity should be pursued because they will grow the economy, restore employment in America, and return business activity to pre-COVID levels.
Club for Growth Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard for the 116th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to the public.