Joe Biden's pick for chief regulator of U.S. banks must turn over the thesis she wrote on Karl Marx during her time at Moscow State University in the 1980s, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said.
During the confirmation hearings for Saule Omarova to head up the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Toomey, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said Omarova is required to provide the thesis to the Senate although it has been scrubbed from her resume'.
Toomey sent a letter to Omarova pointing out that anyone seeking confirmation from the Senate must hand over any reports, books, or other published materials.
Related: Biden’s pick for currency comptroller graduated from Moscow State U with a Lenin scholarship, October 4, 2021
“Therefore, I write today seeking a copy of your thesis, ‘Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital,’ which you wrote as a student at Moscow State University on the V.I. Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship,” the senator wrote.
“While it appears that you have deleted any reference to your thesis in your CV that is currently available on the Cornell Law School website, the paper appeared on your CV as recently as April 2017.”
In a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Toomey said he finds many of Omarova's views “disturbing” and socialist, pointing to writings last year wherein the Cornell professor promoted what he said was “the nationalization” of retail banking.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more radical choice for any regulatory spot in our federal government,” Toomey said. “She, in recent tweets, is favorably comparing the old Soviet Union to the United States of America. How does anyone process that thought?”
Toomey continued: “The Soviet regime was so profoundly evil, and America’s so great, and yet, she doesn’t appear to see it quite that way. What I’m concerned about is, what are her views now? What are the policies that she’s advocating now? And they’re very disturbing.”
Toomey went on to say that he would be “shocked” if any of his Republican colleagues would support Omarova’s nomination, and added, “Frankly, I would hope there would be significant Democrat opposition to someone who is so hostile to free enterprise, so hostile to the idea of private banking, for instance.”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote last week that Omarova’s “radical ideas might make even Bernie Sanders blush,” pointing to a number of her views, including the professor’s push to create a “National Investment Authority” in the U.S.
According to far-left group Data For Progress, “The NIA would operate alongside the Treasury and the Federal Reserve and directly allocate both public and private capital to clean infrastructure projects that currently do not get funded in private markets on the necessary scale,” and “will actively participate in financial markets not only as a lender, guarantor, and market-maker but also as an active asset manager and venture capital investor.”
The New York Times reported on Oct. 5 that, "across the board, banks and their trade groups, including the American Bankers Association, which counts the big banks among its members, and the Independent Community Bankers of America, which represents the smallest institutions, have been sounding alarms" about Omarova.
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