President Donald J. Trump understands that elections have consequences. A mere three days before the mid-term contests, the President warned voters about what would happen if the Democrats reclaimed the United States House of Representatives for the first time in eight years.
He reminded Americans that a Democratic Party takeover would result in Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat – California, running the country’s finances. The President tweeted, “Congresswoman Maxine Waters was called the most Corrupt Member of Congress! If Dems win, she would be put in charge of our Country’s finances. The beginning of the end!”
On election night, Trump’s worst fear was realized. While Democrats were taking back the House of Representatives, 80-year-old Waters cruised to victory over her Republican opponent Omar Navarro according to Fox News. Waters, whom the President has labeled an “extraordinarily low IQ person” and who the media has dubbed “crazy” is expected to become the new chair of the House Financial Services Committee next year.
In fact, the current head of this important committee, Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican – Texas, told CNBC the day after the election that there was a “north of 99 percent chance” Waters would claim his position.
During the interview with CNBC, Hensarling, who didn’t seek re-election, echoed others’ concerns that Waters will slow deregulation and stifle the economic growth the country has enjoyed recently. While he doesn’t feel the California Congresswoman will successfully roll back what the President and the outgoing Republican Congress have done, Hensarling said, “she and others can slow down the pace of deregulation and thus harm economic growth in that way.”
Last May, Congress passed the largest rollback of financial regulations since the financial crises. The legislation reduced restrictions on most of the banks in the country, only the largest ones were excluded. Waters wants more regulation on United States banks.
In July of this year, the 80-year-old legislator promised tougher fines for financial institutions. Pondering the future of the committee he currently heads, Hensarling inquired, “The question is, will the House Financial Services Committee continue to be a beehive of legislative activity … or will the committee basically be turned into a Spanish Inquisition or the Star Chamber to harass the administration, to intimidate the administration?”
The Texas Congressman stated that Waters might end up utilizing her subpoena power a lot more than he did. He noted this development may be a challenge for the leaders of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., FDIC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Hensarling told CNBC, “It’s going to be a test of what is their backbone made of because I assure you they will spend most of the day doing nothing but answering subpoenas for documents and appearances.” The outgoing chair of the House Financial Services Committee added, “They will be sautéed, fried and grilled. There’s no doubt about that.”
Besides attempting to derail deregulation efforts, Waters will likely focus heavily on investigating the President and bullying Republican politicians. Concerning Trump’s financial affairs, the California Congresswoman said during an interview on Bloomberg’s “What’d You Miss” on November 7, “It’s one of the pieces of business that we will investigate. We will deal with that when we come to it.”
After learning that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had resigned, Waters stated, “The president will continue on the trail to get rid of Mueller and that will be a problem.”
During the week before the mid-term elections, Waters again defended her egregious public statements urging her supporters to harass and assault their political foes in mobs according to media outlet Town Hall. In a recent sit-down on the “Roland Martin Unfiltered” web broadcast, the liberal Democrat maintained that these protests “make America better” because the protestors are striving for “justice and equality for everybody.” Instead of denying she’s been encouraging violent actions against Republicans, the 80-year-old justified such behavior by insisting the object of protests is to make opponents “feel uncomfortable.”
She quipped, “I told someone the other day who is trying to say that we are violent when we protest: Protest is about making you feel uncomfortable. I’m not supposed to come to you and say: May I protest you?” Undoubtedly, Waters will do everything in her power to unravel the deregulation efforts that have strengthened the economy and strip Trump of the presidency. However, in this President, she’s likely met her match.
