U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen announced earlier this month the forming of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity (TACRE). The first-of-its-kind committee will provide advice and recommendations to Yellen and Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo regarding “efforts to advance racial equity in the economy and address acute disparities for communities of color.”
According to the Treasury website, the committee will
identify, monitor, and review aspects of the domestic economy that have directly and indirectly resulted in unfavorable conditions for communities of color, and plans to address topics including financial inclusion, access to capital, housing stability, federal supplier diversity, and economic development.
A critical piece of executing on our racial equity goals is bringing a wide set of outside perspectives and lived experiences to the decision-making table…. The Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, made up of members with wide-ranging backgrounds and expertise, will provide important insight and advice to leadership across the department to bolster and inform our equity efforts.
The committee is just another woke Biden administration foray into the mythical concept of social justice that, in this case, is nothing other than pure racism and injustice to free people and free market economics.
Treasury’s step toward and acceptance of Biden’s effort to focus on reducing racial inequity through the force of government didn’t go unnoticed. Several House Republicans sent a letter to Yellen on Monday raising concerns that the radically partisan left-wing members of TACRE will have a strong influence on the agency’s policy decisions “such as modernizing the Internal Revenue Service and implementing the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act.’”
They bluntly hit at the root of the problem: “The formation of this Advisory Committee will only worsen this Administration’s politicization of the Department of Treasury … and distract it from its core responsibilities which include ensuring a level playing field for all Americans,” stated House Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Tom Rice (R- S.C.), Kevin Brady (R-Texas), and Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).
“Moreover, the insertion of Advisory Committee members and the Administration’s equity agenda into Treasury’s day-to-day activities is particularly concerning given the radical policy positions held by some members selected to serve on the Advisory Committee,” the letter claimed, adding, “These assertions are alarming and raise serious concerns that the Advisory Committee will advance radical and divisive views within Treasury and the Administration, particularly in the absence of countervailing views that can ensure a diversity of perspective.”
A particular danger of the committee is that the vice chair, Felicia Wong, is a radical leftist. The congressmen state, “Given her past radical and divisive views on issues such as budget cuts to law enforcement,” her appointment “deviates from the core trust placed in Treasury to protect the economic well-being of all Americans. At a time when workers’ paychecks are not keeping up with the needs of their families due to record high inflation and Americans of all backgrounds are struggling to make ends meet, Treasury is side-tracked by a misguided agenda that will further entrench inequity by favoring some Americans over others.”
Center Square shared that “one report Wong co-authored for the Roosevelt Institute says, ‘no policy, even if facially race-neutral, is race-neutral in practice.’ It also claims the U.S. needs ‘an honest reckoning of America’s legacy of white supremacy and violence, followed by concrete, reparative action to redress those harms….’”
That same report questions America’s “skills-based” economy:
Power relationships within a market-based society have changed somewhat over the last century. But they remain entrenched in racialized capitalism and a politics that have yet to fully reckon with those deep roots. Many thus continue to believe in a skills-based, opportunity-focused liberalism that denies the history and present effects of race-based economic stratification.
Therefore, our mainstream politics has yet to recognize, prioritize, and make central the reckoning, race equity, and self-determination that a multiracial democracy would require.
In the surreal nightmare that the Biden administration has become, it is good to see that there are government representatives willing to expose the truth and question their motives, as in this case with the Republicans’ letter regarding TACRE. The letter’s questions will most likely go unanswered, though, as Yellen knows the truth can’t see the light of day.
Joel Griffith, an economic expert at the Heritage Foundation, said pointedly: Yellen’s “new ‘equity’ committee will advance an extreme, woke agenda by misleading the public into believing that systemic racism — rather than failed ‘progressive’ policies — perpetuates poverty, low quality schools, and a lack of opportunities in some minority communities.”
