Banks and corporations should stay out of politics, just like government should stay out of business. But when one or the other crosses the line, the other side has to push back or roll over.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and crew are pushing back.
Paxton’s office has deemed that Citigroup Inc. “discriminated against the firearms sector,” according to Reuters. Because of this, the banking giant was barred from underwriting most municipal bond offerings in the state.
This is no small thing. Citigroup was recently eliminated from the group of banks set to handle the biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas. The deal was reportedly worth $3.4 billion.
Governor Greg Abbott chimed in on the move, tweeting, “We won’t be bullied or discriminated against by woke ESG policies.”
Texas has a $2 Trillion economy.
We won’t be bullied or discriminated against by woke ESG policies.
We dropped Citigroup from the group of banks participating in biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas.https://t.co/fmG2Qrdybl
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 10, 2023
ESG stands for environmental, social and governance investment practices, criticized by some conservatives as prioritizing ultra-liberal social and environmental justice initiatives over profits.
Lee Deviney, executive director of the Texas Public Finance Authority that oversees borrowing, reported that the Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corporation board convened earlier this month and took action to “reconstitute” the syndicate on the deal, Bloomberg reported. Citigroup, which was approved by the board as one of the underwriting firms in May, is no longer included in the deal.
Should more states follow Texas’ lead?
Yes: 100% (997 Votes)
No: 0% (4 Votes)
Citigroup is not the first bank to be sanctioned for playing politics when it should be focused on business and finance. In October, UBS Group AG was booted from the deal after Texas placed it on the list of firms viewed as boycotting the fossil fuel industry, according to Bloomberg.
The $3.4 billion deal is designed to help natural gas utilities impacted by the devastating storm that pounded Texas in February 2021. It aims to spread out exorbitant energy costs over decades to shield state residents from skyrocketing energy bills.
That’s what governments are intended to do: protect citizens.
In this case, Paxton and company are also preventing an end-run by Citigroup that would quietly impact the Second Amendment. If gun manufacturers are held in check by big banks with political agendas, the people’s right to bear arms is diminished. No product, no right.
In a similar move by progressive corporate players, DirectTV dropped the conservative news channel Newsmax in January. This was an obvious play to curb free speech. DirectTV dropped another conservative outlet, One America News, in January 2022.
These are not mere business decisions made by corporate leaders. They are political maneuvers taking place outside the government’s purview. If the Biden regime can’t openly defy the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, it welcomes corporate players to step in and do the work for them.
And it’s not just corporate leaders and government officials who advance — by whatever means necessary — the progressive agenda. There are plenty of wokesters in the schools teaching your children what to think, encouraging them to kneel on playing fields for political ideals when they should be striving for excellence. They’re even in our armed forces, where servicemembers should be focused on defending us from enemies both foreign and domestic.
The wokesters are the enemy. And they are minions.
It is clear that wokesters in corporate board rooms, schools and the government aim to advance the progressive agenda — which includes doing away with the Constitutional rights of citizens — by doing their part to control what you hear, what you think, what you say and what businesses you have access to.
These people despise free-market economies. They consider free speech as a threat. And they fear competition because they know, somewhere deep down in their hearts, that what they are doing is wrong.
At bottom, the wokesters are aiming to usurp God. It was God who endowed humans with free will. The wokesters want to take that away.
First and foremost, the government’s job is to protect the inalienable rights of its citizens. In America, the government does not dole out rights to those whom they view as fit. God gives these rights to everyone. They cannot be taken away.
When it comes to business, if the government intervenes, it must be to protect the rights of citizens, not dictate them. More states — all states — should follow Texas’ lead.
