(Cover photo courtesy of The New Republic)
This rant from Ben Collins is epic and spot on:
I’d highlight a different section than the one highlighted in the post. To me, the crux of the post is this:
“Every single Republican in our lifetime has sought to make our lives worse in every way possible. I’d like to change that.”
This is broadly true. Are there exceptions? Of course, but not as many as there should be. The bottom line is that - since Reagan - Republicans have espoused a simple “philosophy” (if it can even be called that):
Government sucks (unless I can use it for my personal advantage and enrichment)
Corollary to #1 above - big/intrusive government is evil unless I need to use it to impose my views on others or enrich myself
It’s all about the individual (unless I need help from others and/or… government)
Corollary to #3 above: democracy is ok unless I disagree with you; in that case, I’m right and your wrong and I’ll destroy democracy to get my way
Free markets should make all of our value and societal decisions for us (unless the market acts against me - then intervention is necessary to ensure I get my way)
Corollary to #5 above - privatize profits and subsidize losses
Freedom means I can say and do whatever I want without consequences
Corollary to #7 above - freedom doesn’t apply to those with whom I disagree
Remember, Politics is Policy and Policy is PoliticsTM. Democratic candidates should be hammering these points every chance they get. Make Republicans play defense. Make them explain explicitly and specifically how they actually want to make people’s lives better.
Which brings me to example #24,578 of Republican priorities.
As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Eyar 2021, congress - with a veto proof majority - passed the Corporate Transparency Act.
“The Act requires a report be filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) that identifies each beneficial owner of an applicant forming a reporting company. While questions remain as to the full implications of the Act, it represents an important step in the right direction for the United States in the battle against money laundering and terrorist financing.”
Seems reasonable, right? Sunlight and transparency. Reveal the actual people behind faceless corporate entities so we all know who is doing what.
I mean, who could be against that?
Sorry - that was a trick question. It turns out that Trump, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (he of the permanent punchable smirk) and the Department of the Treasury issued a rule exempting U.S. firms and individuals from reporting beneficial ownership of entities.
I’ll let Thom Hartmann at Alternet explain:
Senator Sherrod Brown’s Corporate Transparency Act required corporations and LLCs to tell the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, who actually owns or controls them. That remote control, often handed through multiple shell companies, is called “beneficial ownership.” It’s all about finding out who, ultimately, benefits from the corporation or LLC’s activities.
This week, though, Bessent issued a new rule that not only ends that requirement but also directs the agency to delete all the beneficial-ownership information they currently hold on U.S. persons (like Donald Trump and his kids) that could be used to prove past money laundering crimes.
This is critical stuff because money laundering is how drug money, bribes, stolen government money, tax evasion proceeds, or money belonging to a sanctioned oligarch can be pushed through corporations, trusts, real estate, banks, casinos, and multiple transactions until figuring out who originally supplied it becomes extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.
And money laundering via real estate in America is a big, big business. As the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project notes in a report titled “U.S. Real Estate is No 1 Destination for Laundered Dirty Money,” we have “the weakest regulatory framework to counter real estate money laundering” among all of the G7 nations. They add:
“At least US$2.3 billion has been laundered over the past five years through U.S. real estate…” and “More than 80% of all U.S. cases involved money coming from abroad, and in 82% of cases, anonymous shell companies or complex corporate structures helped mask the identity of the property’s real owners.”
Most countries made this illegal decades ago, in some cases generations ago. And in the past decade, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom have tightened their own requirements to prevent this kind of money laundering, which in each of those countries and the U.S. was mostly done through anonymous or all-cash real estate transactions done by shell companies.
And Trump and Bessent just killed off the cops on the beat here.
It’s difficult to think of any rational or logical reason for government to roll back this law except that it wants to protect money launderers.
And we all know Trump is a money launderer thorugh his real estate and other businesses.
It’s time for Democrats to get blunt about Trump and Republicans. They are simply out for themselves and - at least when it comes to public policy - show us every day that’s who they are.
Believe it and make sure everyone else knows.
Ben Collins has some good ideas on how to say it.
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
