EssayNovember 22, 2021

What Does the Nomination of Saule Omarova Say About Joe Biden's Ideology?

By Rob Smith·November 22, 2021

I remember when I was a boy, my parents told me to get dressed up as we were going to hear the Polish ambassador speak, and there was a reception to follow at Mr. and Mrs. Farmar’s house. I was only 10 years old, but I immediately expressed my dismay. “Are we going to rub him out?” “Maybe we should capture him first and get him to tell us all his commie secrets!” My mind was racing in ways that we could torture him and get him to talk. We could tie him up in the Farmars’ basement and play Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through The Tulips over and over until he spilled the beans! I was already dreaming about President Nixon pinning the Congressional Medal of Honor on me for my heroic service to my country. Dad led men in combat during the War, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, I knew he’d be all in. Yet, when I announced my battle plan, Mom and Dad just gave a chuckle. I was taken aback. My own parents! Had they gone soft. Had they gone full “Vichy” on me? Collaborating with a commie, serving him ham biscuits and politely chit chatting with him in the middle of the Cold War?

Ok, I admit, I jumped the gun. I was only 10, and I didn’t understand international diplomacy or the fact that had my plan been executed, I might have started a nuclear war. Watching Saule Omarova’s testimony in front of the Senate this week reminded me of those days years ago when even a 10 year old knew there was something truly exceptional about America and who are enemies were. Omarova has been nominated (ostensibly by President Biden, but we all know he’s not really calling the shots) to be Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”). I may have been a bit trigger happy when I was 10, but this nomination is truly a call to arms. She talks exactly like Natasha Fatale on the old Bullwinkle and Rocky show. In fact, I think she is Natasha. She obviously cut her hair to deceive America, but I noticed she has the same “666” birthmark under her left earlobe that Natasha did. The OCC is an independent bureau of the Treasury Department. It regulates and supervises all national banks and federal savings associations as well as federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. Sister Saule was born and raised in the Soviet Union. She was a member of the Leninist Young Communist League, aka the Komsomol, a hip group that held sock hops for young Soviet communists between the ages of 14-28. A young Komosol member could also choose to dig potatoes on a collective or something really fun like kicking peasants off their land and stealing all their possessions. It was much like the Boy Scouts but their oath was a bit different, it was a pledge to world domination and the destruction of capitalism. Saule went on to major in “Scientific Communism” at Moscow State University. MSU was known for its outstanding Communism Department. In fact, while Saule was there US News ranked it 12^th in the world, right up there with Harvard ( #1), Yale (# 2), Berkeley (#3) and a host of other American universities. Her 1989 thesis, Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and Theory of Revolution in the Capital is thought to have been as stimulating as Jill Biden’s PHD dissertation on transgender Community College students. I say “thought to have been” because Saule won’t allow the U.S. Senate to read her thesis. Gee, I wonder why? Did she endorse forced collectivization of land, re-education camps, gulags, centrally planned starvation or political genocide?

In 2019, she participated in a Canadian documentary is which she called the financial services industry as “a quintessential asshole industry.” She then wrote a “scholarly” paper with the catchy alliteration, Systematically Significant Pricesin which she advocated that the Federal Government set wage, food and gas prices. In 2020, she wrote a White Paper, People’s Ledger, in which she advocated abolishing private bank accounts, where everyone would simply have an account with the Fed and of course the Fed would have access and control over everyone’s money. In discussing her “work,” titled Climate Case For National Investment Authority she advocated having the federal government bankrupt the oil and gas industry for the benefit of “climate change.” Her ideology is on full display in her opening paragraphs where she argues for a new economic model to be implemented “in a way that produces tangible and equitably distributed public benefits, instead of underwriting further socio-economic and racial disparities and concentrating economic power in private hands.” In real speak, what she means is that there should be no more wealth in private hands, and if this can be achieved there will be no racial disparities because everybody will be poor as dirt. By the way, she recently stated: “until I came to the US, I couldn’t imagine that things like gender pay still existed in today’s world. Say what you will about the old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there.” Real speak interpretation: there should be no private economy, and everyone should work for the almighty state.

She has been a recent member of a Facebook group whose mission is to discuss socialist and anti-capitalist views. As bad as all the above sounds, her current occupation is perhaps the most disqualifying of all. She is a law Professor at Cornell. Except for a few lawyers who have adjunct positions teaching a class or two at law school, there are few professions more useless to public policy debates than “Law School Professor.” She has refused to state whether she would reintroduce Operation Chokepoint, an Obama policy where the OCC puts pressure on banks not to do business with customers the Left considers its enemies, like gun manufacturers.

During her Senate testimony she stated that she was not a communist. Yet, she wants the government to set price controls, employ everyone and to control all bank accounts. Remember when liberals didn’t like being called “liberal,” because it was a bad word? They wanted to be called “progressives.” Well what walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, is a duck. By the way, anyone who wants to seize your property is also a liar. A liar may not be a thief, but a thief is almost certainly a liar.

When Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, all of the “go along, get along” establishment types ignored it. After all, he was just a lowly corporal from the wrong side of the tracks. Yet, he spelled out exactly what his plans were. No one stopped him and when he was elected Chancellor, the same go along, get along types were shocked at his policies. Omarova’s writings could not be clearer. My god, is anyone paying attention?

All of this leads to two questions. If the Biden Administration nominates someone like this, what does it say about the ideology of Biden Administration? Question No. 2, do any Democratic Senators have the principles, not to mention the testicular fortitude to vote this woman down?

It’s time to call “BOR-SCHT” on this nomination.

First published at realclearmarkets.com.