Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) told the CEOs of top financial institutions that he believes the financial-sector giants have become too involved in major social and political debates in recent years. Sen. Vance was speaking at a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs “Annual Oversight of Wall Street Firms” meeting on Wednesday.
The Senator claimed that without being requested to do so by the American people, the business leaders in attendance, and others, had involved themselves in major political debates such as energy policy, gun ownership rights, and Georgia’s voter ID law. This meant that they could not be understood as neutral arbiters, but rather as political actors in American life. The people of the United States, he argued, had elected lawmakers to Congress to make public policy, and not Wall Street CEOs.
