By Phil Kerpen
Biden Issues First Veto Of His Presidency Over Influence From ‘MAGA Republicans’
More than halfway through his four-year term in office, President Biden has issued his first veto: to block a bipartisan bill requiring fund managers to maximize financial returns for investors rather than compromise them to pursue so-called ESG objectives like fighting global warming and pursuing social justice.
The Trump-era rule was simple: plan fiduciaries were required to make their investment decisions solely based on “pecuniary factors,” meaning the financial interests of plan participants. Biden’s rule is the opposite: “a final rule that allows plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when they select retirement investments.”
Majorities in the House and Senate favored the Trump approach, with one Democrat in the House (Jared Golden of Maine) and two in the Senate (Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana) crossing party lines to get the bill, HJRes30, onto Biden’s desk.
Well, Barry Sotero did such a good job investing in Green why not Brandon.
Biden Labor official Lisa Gomez claimed the Biden rule is actually good for investors: “Climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors can be useful for plan investors as they make decisions about how to best grow and protect the retirement savings of America’s workers,” and Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer advanced a similar argument: “America’s most successful asset managers and financial institutions have used ESG factors to minimize risk and maximize their clients’ returns.” #ESG “ESG”
This argument is both wrong and self-refuting.
Wrong, because the available data shows companies that prioritize their ESG scores underperform the market. An analysis by 2ndVote Analytics found that the 221 politically neutral companies in the S&P900 outperformed the market significantly since mid-2021: up 2.9% while the overall market was down. Over the last 10 years, neutrals are +334% while the overall market is +230%.
Former Blackrock executive Terrence Keeley soured on ESG because, he wrote in 2022: “an investor who put $10,000 into an average global ESG fund in 2017 would have about $13,500 today, compared with $15,250 he would have earned if he had invested in the broader market.”
Seminal research by NYU professor Aswath Damodaran concluded: “There is a weak link between ESG and operating performance (growth and profitability), and while some firms benefit from being good, many do not. Telling firms that being socially responsible will deliver higher growth, profits and value is false advertising.”
The argument that ESG is good for investors is self-refuting because if it were true that using ESG factors drives superior returns, then Democrats would be perfectly happy with the Trump rule’s requirement that they consider only pecuniary factors – precisely what Biden is wielding his veto pen to avoid.
The real Biden agenda is to advance a left-wing political ideology on everything from fossil fuel restrictions (pushing energy prices higher in the name of global warming) to radical gender and critical race theory by leveraging woke capital.
The unfortunate casualty will be the retirement security of Americans, as their accounts are steered towards companies that have higher ESG scores rather than better financial prospects.
Biden veto is, unfortunately, likely to be sustained.
But Republicans in Congress owe it to their constituents to keep pressing this issue and attach it to must-pass bills until they either restore the commonsense principal that fiduciaries are required to maximize financial returns, or at least make clear to the American people that Biden and his Democratic allies are responsible for sacrificing their retirement income on the altar of politics.
This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like.
Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings — whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not. “Our research indicates that ESG investing does not have any advantage over broad-based investing” – Vanguard CEO
Vanguard’s CEO has withdrawn his firm from the $59 trillion ESG Investing Alliance
He stated Vanguard is “Not in the Game of Politics”
ESG investments allocate money based on political agendas, such as a drive against climate change, rather than on earning the best returns for savers. Republicans pushed measures to overturn the Labor Department: ESG is just the latest example of the world trying to get “woke.” “Our research indicates that ESG investing does not have any advantage over broad-based investing”
The people are winning who are fighting back against the bogus ESG agenda
which is based on lies. Vanguard’s CEO Bucks the ESG Orthodoxy – WSJ
Why are you saying MAGA House now? I know the answer.
Awl…..you are no longer proud of the MAGA name?
MAGA House MAGA House MAGA House MAGA House
MAGA House MAGA House MAGA House MAGA House!!
Referring to MAGA and MTG in a response to your first veto is regrettably weak.
Simply by pointing to them, I am 100% more suspicious of your veto than I would have been otherwise. Joe’s Party Platforms Failed—with 50 million Americans in poverty and the largest government in history— How about you tell people what the bill really is instead of personally attacking political opponents to further divide the people.
You’re MISLEADING us
Your veto is forcing investment decisions to be BASED ON POLITICS, Not financial criteria!!!
You’re killing competition by FORCING YOUR (ESG Factors) funds are notorious underperformers & high-risk leaving future of RETIREES LESS SECURE.“I vetoed my first bill only because the other side supported it.” FJB
This veto by Joe Biden goes directly against the interests of the American people and once again creates an illegitimate loophole for companies like @BlackRock, @StateStreet and @Vanguard_Group to exploit politics over profits with American pension dollars. Joe Biden has officially used his first veto to defend ESG investing — striking down bipartisan legislation to protect the retirement accounts of American workers from ESG activism.
In the midst of a banking crisis, it’s disappointing to see this administration prioritizing ESG over protecting the financial security of all Americans. ESG is nothing more than a scam that politicians/activists use to circumvent our democratic system.
That’s what Biden meant to say here. He can’t even name five things from the bill,
because he, like everyone else in the federal government, never reads any of these
bills before signing off on them.
This admin. is above and beyond most responsible for such decisiveness it decries when it throws out such rhetoric as this in how everything is MAGA’s fault. MTG voted for the bill, as did most of the House, but she didn’t even sponsor it. And Senate Dems voted for it as well. I met * divisiveness, darn autocorrect.
Both parties unanimously voted for this bill too.
It’s bad for the people and it’s gonna cost everybody now. Notice he did not reference E.S.G. in his tweet. Look up E.S.G. my friend. What is ESG? Definition and meaning – Market Business News It’s disappointing to see that this administration uses hard working Americans’ retirements to further progressive politics rather than ensure Americans are financially secure.
The bill was about ending ESG, the practice of disenfranchising investors (=pensionists) and empowering managers to pursue their own ideological goals, instead of following their fiduciary obligations. ESG will kill capitalism, and freedom along with it: Opinion | Financial Post
I think, your framing doesn’t fit the facts.
The bipartisan group of Senators and @HouseGOP
deserve high praise for doing their job in protecting the American people by passing a bill to stop President Biden from allowing Wall Street elites to use ESG as a weapon to force a partisan agenda.
The Biden Administration should be ashamed for enabling a blatant attack on American freedom, prosperity, and democracy which will only serve to weaken us as a nation while strengthening adversaries like China.
Tester to join Manchin, Republicans in blocking DOL green investment rule | The Hill
Fascinating to lump Tester and Manchin (who you need to pass basically anything) in with “MAGA Republicans.”
This is such a lazy communications strategy. This was literally passed by both the house and senate.. neither party wanted their retirement funds being wasted.. Translation-
Biden thinks, “I’m a partisan hack & have zero intentions of uniting the country.”
What a disingenuous way to justify vetoing a bill that would require plan managers to invest for returns rather than ESG goals. Is this captioned for the speaker’s impairment? The weather must be considered when making an investment? What was the weather when China and Ukraine invested millions in the Biden family?
Have you no shame, FJB?
All of these big investment firms should be extensively investigated.
Starting with Vanguard and Blackrock. For “deworsification”
You’re going to indict Trump for nothing and use that to create a monolith
label of every Republican. Just flapping your jaw again, I see.
Have ya heard about the 11 new transactions with China?
Oh, there is more to indict him on, hold on, u want it, it’s coming!
.
Not sure what’s worse, the fact that you’ve been in office this long and you’ve only vetoed one bill, or the one bill you chose to veto is probably the only good bill #Congress passed. One of the worst things an investment manager can do is allow politics to compromise returns.
The people who manage your retirement savings should only have one thing to consider: Your retirement security. Once again Biden is prioritizing far-left special interests over the economic well-being of the American people.
You could care less about average Americans. Your woke agenda is harming people’s investments.
Politics is kayfabe. ~ Each of the parties represent faces, heels, and agents of chaos.
The fights are scripted, outcomes are predetermined, and someone like Vince is CEO.
When reality hits your totalitarian phantasy.
If you think about politics in terms of professional wrestling, it makes complete sense.
You are a liar. You vetoed it because you are more interested in pushing “woke” lies than the welfare or Americans.
It has been proven there is a low return from companies that use ESG as an investment criterion. You make Americans poorer on a daily basis to further your grifting, Climate Hoax and to placate the progressives you fear. #GFY #FJBiden #ImpeachBiden
I’ll tell you what risks retirement savings, when government regulations encourage money managers to invest in firms that place more value on diversity than merit. Look no further than the Biden administration itself to see the results of such a strategy. “Risk factors Republicans don’t like” is an extremely dishonest description of “non-pecuniary factors,” that is, letting fund managers prioritize politics over investment returns.
I will move everything back into Vanguard as I need every dollar invested intelligently to battle the government’s addiction to taking and spending my money. So what you are saying is, you want every investment professional to ignore their fiduciary responsibility to earn money for their clients, in lieu of that same advisor investing in companies that will lose money, thus tanking their clients’ retirement funds. Gotcha.
The tides aturnin’ against crypto-communism yet stand vigilant, stand firm and stand united!
Well Joey, I was informed that you screwed my 401k by -14% last year.
How do you explain that?
Your policies have killed the stock market, raised inflation to a 40-year high,
raised gas prices 50% above when you took office not to mention food& utility$.
It looks like It’s at 6% right now It’s slowly going down.
To me Simple research can be your very best friend
Current US Inflation Rates: 2000-2023 | US Inflation Calculator
Measure it by pre 1980 Cpi standards and we are in the double digits.
Your FAILURE Policies made people LOSE their savings already and
now you want to be the Hero
Highest Household Debt $17 Trillions since you took office.