Washington DC , House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) issued the following statement about today’s Senate committee hearing on the nomination of Scott Garrett to be President of the Export-Import Bank:
“The Export-Import Bank is a deeply troubled government agency connected to cases of fraud, bribery and abuse. Scott Garrett is a true reformer who will steer the Bank in a much-needed new direction. Instead of bowing down to pressure from inside-the-Beltway special interest groups, senators should be looking out for the interests of hardworking taxpayers. President Trump was right to nominate Scott Garrett, a principled leader who will put an end to the Bank’s well-documented management failures.”
It is unfortunate that so many Republicans, conservatives lawmakers, and pundits conflate being pro-market with being pro-business. These are two separate things. Unfortunately, this confusion has produced thousands of government handouts and privileges to companies in the name of being pro-business — and these companies have developed a sense of entitlement. Worst of all, for many of them, government-granted privileges are an inherent part of their business models.
The latest example of this has to do with the nomination by President Trump of former Representative Scott Garrett to become the new president of the crony Export-Import Bank. The institution has been pretty much zombified since 2015 thanks to a few Republicans in Congress who actually believe in the free-market and despise government subsidies (no matter what form they take) to big businesses. As a reminder, during the heyday of the Ex-Im Bank, ten massive domestic companies benefited from 65 percent of the agency’s activities, which subsidized loans to equally massive and often state-owned foreign companies. Also, while the bank also subsidizes billion of dollars in loans to companies in countries that President Trump claims are hurting us on trade, such as China and Mexico, Trump has reversed his position on Ex-Im and wants it up and running and sponsoring large firms again. Go figure. The silver lining is that while the bank will be back in business, at least the man he has nominated understands full well the many problems with the institution — including fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Scott Garrett was a staunch opponent of the Ex-Im Bank and he is exactly the kind of guy you want there
President Donald Trump said Friday he would nominate former U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, who had supported closing the U.S. Export-Import Bank, to head the credit agency. Garrett’s fight against the agency was well documented on this blog. Garrett’s considered the agency’s action nothing tantamount to corporate welfare.
Mr. Garrett voted in both 2012 and in 2015 against renewing the charter of the Ex-Im Bank, which guarantees loans for companies that export U.S. products.
Garrett a policy wonk had worked closely with Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), the current chair of the House Financial Services Committee who steered the campaign to curtail the Ex-Im Bank. He helped engineer a five-month lapse in the agency’s charter in 2015, and the Ex-Im Bank hasn’t been able to approve financial for deals of more than $10 million for the last two years because Senate Republicans didn’t fill empty board seats, depriving the agency of a quorum.
Garrett’s nomination comes just days after Trump appeared to soften his stance on the bank and said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal he now supported the bank after having been critical of it.
Garrett’s major sin this election cycle was that he didn’t morph into something he wasn’t in response to recent waves of demands made by people living so-called “alternative” sexual lifestyles and by others, mostly young adults with a weak or misguided spiritual life or no connection at all to a traditionally organized religion, and who see themselves as social justice warriors engaging in the latest, greatest civil rights battle.
In fairness, how does an honest federal or state officeholder who believes in traditional Christian morality withstand such a well funded Alynskyite attack and win re-election? Particularly in northern New Jersey where so many brainwashed progressives are busy buying up almost all of the available housing stock.
Garrett should try to make peace with Trump and those early Trump supporters like Mike Doherty who resisted abandoning him when times became tough during the general election season. With any luck, Garrett, with his great experience, innate intelligence, and unshakably ethical approach to governing, will secure a prominent position in Trump’s administration and help him move forward with the many important policy imperatives they hold in common. As a country we could be looking at at least 16 straight years of sober and responsible Republican control of the executive branch if Trump and Pence play their cards right, keep their noses clean, and put on a clinic on real leadership, each of which can safely be predicted.
Trump won this race his way, rather than kowtowing to the republican establishment like Reagan did in choosing establishment mole George H. W. Bush as his vice-presidential running mate. This will pay big dividends. As long as Trump has reasonable success in obtaining long-needed tax reform and reviving our moribund economy he will be very well set up for re-election four years from now.
Job number one in terms of keeping liberals and progressives frustrated and rudderless for as long as possible should be for non-establishment patriots like Trump to fight hard to prevent them from credibly claiming that they have reoccupied the moral high ground. These phonies are constantly trying to portray themselves as our moral “betters” and their political opponents as the worst possible thing–hypocrites. Weak-kneed, wishy-washy republicans have been letting them get away with this nonsense in the media for decades now. With this huge victory by Trump, they have finally been exposed as morally bankrupt. Nothing chaps their asses worse than this kind of undeniable public humiliation. Normal, red-blooded Americans who were never brainwashed by sociopathic college professors are absolutely loving it.
Hopefully nobody gets killed in the next few days or weeks as the diasappointed SJWs indulge themselves in shameless riots (not protests) in the streets of our major cities and elsewhere. If someone does unfortunately die, Trump will probably take it very personally. No doubt he would call Obama and Clinton and their narrow-minded political operatives out directly and severely for their immoral unwillingness to maintain law and order while they transition out of power.
Garrett Statement on the Fifth District Congressional Race
November 9,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Garrett for Congress issued the following statement from Congressman Scott Garrett on the Fifth District congressional race:
“I would like to thank everyone that supported our campaign – from the voters to the volunteers and campaign staff that dedicated their time and energy to this effort. While the results of this election were not what I had hoped for, I am proud of the race we ran – we stayed the course and kept the faith. We are charged to pray for our nation’s leaders, and we are doing that now.
Ridgewood NJ, Wikileaks revealed the shocking extent of the collusion between the mainstream media and the Clinton campaign. Now, Garrett for Congress has discovered that the New Jersey media is complicit in assisting Clinton protégé and Democrat congressional candidate Josh Gottheimer try to avoid FBI investigation for his violation of federal law.
Josh Gottheimer is currently running a campaign advertisement on New Jersey television in which he has forged government documents in order to fabricate claims that Congressman Scott Garrett is involved in corruption.
Shockingly, Gottheimer’s campaign admitted his deceit to the Star Ledger: “An official with the Gottheimer campaign confirmed that it had produced the ad and manipulated the image,” according to article text posted at 9:17pm on November 2, 2016.
Falsifying government documents is a federal crime under 18 U.S. Code § 912.
This violation of federal law was flagged for New Jersey journalists by Garrett for Congress, and magically, the Star Ledger article was updated at 10:36pm with more cautious language, seemingly to avoid implicating Josh Gottheimer for his crime. This is a blatant attempt by the Star Ledger to help Josh Gottheimer bend the truth.
We’ve seen media bias throughout the campaign as the New Jersey press corps has ignored coverage of charges of impropriety against Gottheimer, but this is the first time we’ve actually caught the press in the act of covering for his campaign.
In the Bergen Record article ,Garrett vs. Gottheimer: Fact-checking North Jersey’s rough ‘n’ tumble 5th Congressional race, the “Fact check ” article is devoid of facts .This article is just another hit job by the Bergen Record. There is no fact checking.
Gottheimer committed a Federal Crime by fraudulently forging a document he used in a commercial. He substituted the letterhead of the Office of Congressional Ethics to an original document that contained no such heading. The letter was from a left wing so called “ethics” organization. The original heading contained the letterhead of that leftist group. This forgery was committed to give the false impression that Congressman Garrett was being investigated by Congress.
Ridgewood NJ, Third party sources were shocked to discover that Josh Gottheimer has falsified Federal government documents in a campaign ad against Scott Garrett, and have since pulled Gottheimer’s ad.
Shockingly, Gottheimer admitted his deceit to the Star Ledger: “An official with the Gottheimer campaign confirmed that it had produced the ad and manipulated the image.”
Falsifying government documents is a federal crime under 18 U.S. Code § 912.
After cease and desist letters were sent to TV stations and advertising companies, Gottheimer’s campaign pulled the billboards advertising Gottheimer’s fraudulent claims from two locations in New Jersey.
What more admittance of guilt do we need? Gottheimer has been caught red-handed and must apologize to the voters in New Jersey’s Fifth District.
As Democrat desperation intensifies Gottheimer Campaign goes off the rails plays anti-Semite card against Garrett in a purely gutter politic move.
Garrett for Congress Campaign Manager Sarah Neibart issued the following statement regarding an anti-Semitic flyer that is allegedly circulating in the Fifth District:
“My family fled Nazi-occupied Europe to escape persecution because of their Jewish heritage. I find this flyer to be disgusting, and I would never authorize such a deplorable document to be produced by our campaign or any affiliated group. I would also call on the media to get an honest answer from the Gottheimer campaign as to whether this is a political ploy manufactured by them to fabricate a hate crime. We think that these documents should be turned over to the authorities to see if their origin can be determined.”
Teaneck Councilman, Jewish Link Co-Founder and prominent Garrett for Congress supporter Mark Schwartz issued the following statement regarding an anti-Semitic flyer that is allegedly circulating in the Fifth District:
“I know Scott Garrett – he is a good man who has run his campaign with integrity, despite being unfairly targeted by mudslingers on all sides. He is one of the strongest supporters of the State of Israel we have in Congress and has been a loyal friend of the Jewish people. I am appalled by the tenor of the campaign being run by his opponent, and I know Scott Garrett had absolutely nothing to do with this disgusting flyer.”
“the CHOICE Act offers us a way out by pointing us towards a system that will allow the market to determine the risk of a financial institution, and make it unlikely that taxpayers will ever be called on again to bail out Wall Street and the bad decisions of regulators who oversee it” Rep. Scott Garrett CD5
Norbert Michel / @norbertjmichel / September 20, 2016
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, the House Financial Services Committee passed the Financial CHOICE Act. Among other needed financial reforms, the bill would make taxpayer-funded bailouts of big banks less likely and ease regulations that hurt community banks.
It’s hardly a surprise that the vote (30–26) was largely along party lines, but some of the anti-CHOICE Act rhetoric was disturbing. Just as with the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, it appears that fear-mongering and special interest lobbying will prevent real financial reforms from even being debated.
Only one of the bill’s 11 sections deals with reform of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), but opponents are doing their best to tie this entire debate to the CFPB and Wells Fargo. In the process, they’re presenting Americans with a false choice: leave the CFPB alone and remain safe, or reform the CFPB and drown in fraud.
Ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., proclaimed:
We need to look no further than just last week to see why we need a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which used its authorities under Dodd-Frank to uncover a massive scheme under which millions of consumer accounts at Wells Fargo were fraudulently opened, with the bulk of this fraud perpetrated in my hometown of Los Angeles.
One serious problem with this logic is that the fraud occurred just prior to 2014, almost two years after the CFPB was up and running. And the CFPB didn’t uncover it.
If the CFPB is so vital for fraud protection, what happened?
But what good is logic when the objective is to scare everyone into believing Dodd-Frank and the CFPB make us safer? Fear-mongering is a tried and true Washington tactic, especially when it comes to financial markets.
And it’s not just politicians who use fear-mongering. Special interest groups use the same ploy, and the retail trade associations’ opposition to the CHOICE Act’s repealing of the so-called Durbin Amendment is the perfect example.
The Durbin Amendment, named after Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, imposed a price cap on the debit card interchange (“swipe”) fees that banks charge for using their cards. Supposedly, retailers everywhere were going to pass these savings on to their consumers.
As was easily predicted, consumers haven’t saved at all. Even Barney Frank admits that consumers didn’t see any benefit from the price cap.
Instead, retailers have benefited from the lower fees without lowering their customers’ prices. Worse, consumers have lost out on low-cost banking services because banks raised other fees to compensate for their lost revenue.
Need more evidence?
It’s not the consumers clamoring for the House to leave price controls in place. It is business and retail trade associations, such as the National Grocers Association, the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America, and the National Restaurant Association.
There’s no doubt that these groups’ members have a difficult time running a profitable business, but so does everyone. Instead of pushing back on the CHOICE Act over one tiny section—one that would benefit millions of consumers—these groups should push for large-scale relief of the regulations that make it so difficult for their members to earn money.
Supporting the types of reforms in the CHOICE Act would be a great place to start.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, In true “say anything to get elected” Clinton-style politics, Josh Gottheimer’s campaign rhetoric doesn’t match his actual beliefs.
Before he was a congressional candidate, Gottheimer was a political strategist who served as a surrogate for Obama/Clinton foreign policies as a frequent contributor on cable news and helped the Clinton’s raise money.
Gottheimer and his media allies continue to brag about his fund raising prowess, like the Clinton campaign Gottheimer has raised significant amounts of money from dubious sources like disgraced New Jersey former congressmen Robert Torricelli and a Saudi wife beater.
While Gottheimer and his media and political allies have attempted to paint Rep. Scott Garrett as an anti gay bigot and both Gottheimer and Clinton champions of the LGBT community ,money continues to flow to both campaigns from anti gay ,anti women and anti Jewish sources.
Petra News Agency reported in June that Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has provided 20 percent of the total funding to the prospective Democratic candidate’s campaign.
It gets worse ,one of Clinton’s largest contributors is Billionaire George Soros a Nazi collaborator who, “Says He Feels No Remorse For Collaborating With Nazis During WWII to Send His Fellow Jews to the Death Camps, and Steal Their Property.”
Many oil rich Islamic countries with strict anti LGBT have made massive donations to the Clinton campaign:
Algeria donated $250,000 to $500,000 to the Clintons
Saudi Arabia donated up to $50 million to the Clintons
The Nation of Brunei donated $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 to the Clintons
United Arab Emirates donated up to $11.5 million to the Clintons
Kuwait donated $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 to the Clintons
Qatar donated $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 to the Clintons
Lets not for get Anti-LGBT Russia were Bill Clinton earned $500,000 for a speech in Moscow paid for by a Kremlin-backed bank.
Gottheimer claims he opposes President Obama’s Iran (another anti LGBT country) deal but on FOX news he sounded very much like a supporter.
Voters in the Fifth District are curious to know – what does Josh Gottheimer really think? Is he saying one thing just to get elected, when really, he’s just a mouthpiece for a Democrat Administration? Is he willing to say anything and take money from anyone ?
Ridgewood NJ, Congressmen Scott Garrett has faced a Democrat led faux protest regarding alleged comments he made a year ago about his refusal to pay dues supporting the House’s fundraising campaign because it supports gay candidates.
Faux protest photo ops have been launched usually led by NJ Assemblyman Tim Eustace who clearly has far to much time on his hands.All the while Garrett challenger carpetbagger Josh Gottheimer has been taking money for disgraced former congressmen Bob “the torch” Torricelli and Saudi Arabian wife beaters.
But now Gottheimer has his own “Gay dilemma” , it seems in an internal DNC memo published by WikiLeaks, one party staffer complained in bigoted derogatory stereotypical fashion to colleagues that one of the party’s gay donors was just too high maintenance for her to handle.
The leaked memo, which is titled “Close out memo” and dated April 22, 2016, was authored by DNC staffer Julia Lahl, who recaps much of the work done with the party’s LGBT Leadership Council. The memo contains information on dozens of donors , much of which is not positive.
Lahl goes on to complain that one donor, named as Darrin Glymph, is “extremely high maintenance.” Glymph was one of three hosts for a May 2015 fundraiser in Washington, D.C. that was “wildly successful” “in terms of identifying “black gay men” that are interested in getting involved. However the [three] hosts that filled the room incredibly for this event were extremely hard to wrangle for the actual gala,” Lahl wrote.
“Darrin would like to become more involved but he is hard to get in touch with and is extremely high maintenance,” Lahl went on to complain. “I found him to be too much work for what he is worth (maybe a 5k check).
Ridgewood NJ, The American people are just now learning the extent to which members of the Clinton family are willing to sell themselves and access to our government to the highest bidder.
Now, voters in the Fifth District are demanding answers to what role Josh Gottheimer played with the Clinton Foundation.
The very Liberal New York Observer said , “It comes as no surprise that Hillary Clinton’s closest allies are involved in a litany of ethics violations”
Recently Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign chair, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, came under investigation by the FBI and Department of Justice over questionable contributions to his 2013 campaign.
We already know, for example, that during Josh Gottheimer’s tenure at Microsoft, Bill Clinton was paid $225,000 to give one speech.
But the four years during which Mr. Gottheimer served as Executive Vice President for Burson-Marsteller are completely opaque.
Voters of the Fifth District want answers.
During his tenure at Burson-Marsteller, through how many clients did Josh Gottheimer funnel money to the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation? Did any of his clients that donated to the Clinton Foundation subsequently lobby the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State? Will Josh Gottheimer share his Burson-Marsteller client list, so we know the specific special interests to which he is tied?
Garrett bills to reduce regulatory burdens and hold government accountable pass Financial Services Committee
June 17,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, released the following statement after the House Financial Services Committee passed two bills he introduced; H.R. 5429, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act and H.R. 4852, the Private Placement Improvement Act of 2016. In addition to Garrett’s bills, the subcommittee passed seven additional bills that Garrett guided through his subcommittee:
“Last month’s abysmal jobs report proves again that top-down, Washington-first economic policies are failing the American people. If we want to revitalize the economy, Congress needs to promote investment and reduce red tape by making it easier for investors and businesses across America to access capital and grow. Today the Financial Services Committee took steps to do that by passing two bills I sponsored and seven more from the Capital Markets subcommittee.
“My bills do two simple things. First, every business and every family does their own version of a cost-benefit analysis when making financial decisions, and the SEC will have to do the same under the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act. Second, the SEC needs to make sure it is implementing the JOBS Act to jumpstart the economy instead of imposing additional restrictions on investment. The Private Placement Improvement Act is designed to fix that problem.”
So far this Congress, 10 bills from Garrett’s subcommittee have been signed into law by President Obama—all with bipartisan support. With the passage of 9 bills today, 39 total bills from the Capital Markets subcommittee have been approved by the full committee this Congress.
Background:
H.R. 5429, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act
The SEC has a three-part mission, investor protection, orderly markets, and capital formation. To make sure that the SEC is not restricting the flow of capital into our economy, Garrett’s bill would require the SEC to demonstrate that any rules it proposes will help our businesses grow by performing a cost-benefit analysis.
This codifies guidance that President Obama gave to executive branch agencies and will lend credibility to the SEC’s rules. Garrett’s bill ensures that businesses and start-ups have suitable supervision from the SEC and are not burdened by costly overregulation. The SEC Regulatory Accountability Act passed the House in 2013, as H.R. 1062, by a bipartisan vote.
H.R. 4852, the Private Placement Improvement Act
The SEC has the responsibility of implementing the innovative laws Congress passed in the JOBS Act and continues to have oversight of the private offering market for securities. However, the SEC was a year and a half late in making rules for general solicitation of private offerings under Title II of the JOBS Act, and continued a poor streak when, in 2013, it came out with new proposals to impede the private offering market.
The proposals would have hindered all Reg. D issues and not just those using general solicitation. The threat of expensive regulation hanging over the heads of investors has meant that the amount of capital raised under Reg. D has not grown in the manner that other areas of the market helped by the JOBS Act have. Garrett’s bill makes a single notice of sales sufficient for exemption from regulation under Reg. D and helps the JOBS Act reach its full potential by maintaining a clear and common-sense approach to regulations for private offerings.
Ridgewood NJ, Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) released the following statement in response toreports that Boeing has reached a multibillion-dollar deal to sell commercial passenger planes to Iran. Boeing is one of the largest beneficiaries of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) bank which perpetuates corporate welfare to mega corporations by handing out taxpayer-backed loans.
“This agreement between Boeing and the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism is extremely troubling and shows that crony capitalism remains alive and well in Washington. Not only has Boeing lobbied for years to keep the taxpayer-backed Export Import bank alive, it now has also used its powerful position to take advantage of the ill-conceived nuclear deal with Iran. This agreement is bad news, not just for taxpayers but for our national security.”
Boeing was lobbying Congress to keep their Ex-Im bank subsidies at the same time it was seeking carve outs from the Obama Administration to do more business with the dangerous Iranian regime. Garrett has been an outspoken critic of the Ex-Im bank and the Iran nuclear deal.
Ridgewood NJ ,Rep Scott Garrett’s Democratic challenger Political insider Josh Gottheimer has lots of high profile friends he’s using to try to buy his way into Congress. Unfortunately for him, these “friends” believe the rules don’t apply to them – which means they have bit a habit of running into trouble with the law…Terry McAuliffe is just the latest in a series of scandals plaguing members of the “Gottheimer Cartel.”
Does Josh Gottheimer agree with his “friends” – that the rules don’t apply to him?
Gottheimer’s Clinton 2008 Campaign Mentor and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe:Terry McAuliffe Under FBI Investigation For Possible Campaign Violations. “The FBI is investigating whether Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s 2013 campaign accepted illegal contributions.” (NBC News, 5/23/2016)
“Family Member” Hillary Clinton: FBI May Question Clinton. ”In addition to the FBI investigation, inspectors general at the State Department and the U.S. intelligence community are reviewing whether security procedures or laws were broken.” (ABC News, 5/23/2016)
Donor and Wife Beater Ibrahim Al-Rashid: Democratic Groups Keep Donations From Domestic Violence Convict. “Al-Rashid, the son of a Saudi multimillionaire, pled guilty in 2014 to a domestic assault charge against his estranged wife, who was formerly the finance director for Rep. Patrick Murphy (D, Fla.).” (Washington Free Beacon, 5/19/2016)
Donor and Disgraced Senator Bob “The Torch” Torricelli: Torricelli Angling for Return to US Senate by Supporting Clinton “Family Member” Gottheimer?“Former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli said if Hillary Clinton is elected president, he “might ask to do something” in her administration.” (NJ.com, 4/21/2016)
Paramus NJ in what could be only considered a media event with no chance of swaying opinions 12 protesters called on Fidelity Investments storefront on Route 17 in Paramus to stop financially backing the campaign of CD5 Republican Congressman Scott Garrett.
The rally was made up of the same 12 people who have been protesting Garrett and supporting his opponent
Josh Gottheimer ,included Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-38), representatives from New Jersey Citizen Action, Garden State Equality, College Democrats of New Jersey and Ramapo College Democrats. Apparently the few protesters were unaware that a branch office in New Jersey has almost zero input to Fidelity Investments corporate donation policy.
These “rent a mob” protests have been in response to controversial remarks Garrett “allegedly” made last year that he would not support the House Republican campaign arm because of support for gay candidates.
No evidence or transcripts have ever surfaced as to the nature of these “alleged” comments . Most insiders suspect the entire controversy was manufactured by former House Speaker John “cry baby” Boehner. Who Garrett had voted against his disastrous tenure as Speaker of The House.
While the media loves events like theses that are custom tailored to fit the “evil ,mean ,GOP ” narrative Garrett’s Democratic opposition Josh Gottheimer has had far worse problems with donors . It seems Josh Gottheimer campaign has been partly financed by foreign money .Accepting donations from son of a billionaire Saudi businessman, and infamous wife beater Ibrahim Al-Rashid . Even Senator Harry Reid won’t take Al-Rashid’s money, yet political insider Josh Gottheimer has embraced Al-Rashid, to the disgust of residents of the Fifth District.
To make matters worse Gottheimer has also accepted donations from disgraced NJ Senator Bob “the Torch” Torricelli an Englewood Democrat who abandoned his bid for a second term in the U.S. Senate 13 years ago under an ethical cloud . So bad was Torricelli’s discretion’s he was forced out by his own party. Torricelli quite following a series of seamy revelations that he’d accepted lavish gifts from businessman David Chang, which in turned prompted the Senate Ethics Committee to issue a formal letter of admonishment.
