Lankford Spars with Treasury Secretary over Billionaire Bailout Paid by Oklahoma Community Banks

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s Q&A on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s Q&A on Rumble.

WASHINGTON, DC – In a Senate Finance Committee hearing today, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) questioned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank full bailout for billionaires, including the potential for bailing out foreign investors in China, and how Oklahoma’s community banks and taxpayers will be on the hook for a bank failure they had nothing to do with. Earlier this week, Lankford discussed the fallout from this massive bailout on the Senate floor and on Fox News.

Excerpt

Lankford: It has been reported publicly that SVB had a large number of Chinese investors that are there including some that are companies directly connected to the Chinese Communist Party. Will those individuals, companies, entities, and investors that are Chinese investors be made whole based on assessments in my banks in Oklahoma? So what I’m asking is, will my banks in Oklahoma pay a special assessment to be able to make Chinese investors whole from Silicon Valley Bank?

Yellen: [nodding] Uninsured investors will be made whole in that bank, and I suppose that could include foreign depositors, but I don’t believe there’s any legal basis to discriminate among uninsured.

Lankford: I get it, but I’m just saying, my community banks are going to pay this additional fee. It’s always fascinating to me as well the conversation that taxpayers are being made whole in this so taxpayers are not going to have any kind of consequence on this. I’m sure my bankers are going to be very excited to know they no longer pay taxes and their banks no longer pay taxes. Credit unions don’t pay taxes, banks do, and so they’re definitely taxpayers as well and all banks make their revenue off of rates and fees and such to their account holders, which means every Oklahoman will pay higher fees in their community bank.

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