Clueless

Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives this meaning for the word “clueless”:

—–completely or hopelessly bewildered, unaware, ignorant, or foolish

The prime example of clueless members of Congress this week is Rep Maxine Waters (D-Calif).  This woman is the CHAIR of the House Financial Services Committee.

So what does the House Financial Services Committee do?

The House Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over issues pertaining to the economy, the banking system, housing, insurance, and securities and exchanges. Additionally, the Committee also has jurisdiction over monetary policy, international finance, international monetary organizations, and efforts to combat terrorist financing.  The Committee oversees the Nation’s economy through its oversight of the Federal Reserve Board and individual reserve banks, the Treasury, the production and distribution of currency, and the Nation’s capital markets.

There are 60 (60!!) members of the HFSC, with 26 Republicans, 33 Democrats, and 1 Socialist (guess who) who calls herself a Socialist but ran on the Democratic ticket.

These members include Ocasio-Cortez (the Socialist), Rashida Tlaib (the Palestinian), and Ayanna Pressley, who has stood with the other two on various issues.  All ran and won on the Democratic ticket.  Pressley was one of 7 who voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 to stem the “government shutdown.”  She was one of 12 voting against a bill to improve Homeland Security at the local level.  Both Bills passed overwhelmingly.

I’ll admit that I was surprised Rep Ilhan Omar was not on this committee.  She’s the Muslim representative from Minnesota who said it was “some people” who committed the 9-11 attacks–refusing to acknowledge they were Muslims.

So, Maxine Waters is chair of the House Financial Services Committee.  Apparently she thought she was going to rebuke some “white supremacist bankers” — Bank of America CEO Brian Monahan, JP Morgan’s CEO James Dimon, and Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat — for not doing anything about the “student loan crisis.”

Now as the CHAIR of the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, one might think she would be familiar with the goings on of the student loan industry.

And we have discovered, one would be completely wrong to think that.

As Investors Business Daily reports, the government removed banks from the student loan business in 2010:

“In 2010, President Obama effectively nationalized student lending by cutting banks — which had been offering government-backed loans to students — out of the equation and having the government make the loans itself.”

Is it just me, or is it disconcerting that the chair of one of the most influential committees in Congress didn’t know this?

“What are you guys doing to help us with this student loan debt? Who would like to answer first? Mr. Monahan, big bank.”

Bank of America CEO Brian Monahan: “Uh, we stopped making student loans in 2007 or so.”

Rep. Waters: “Oh, so you don’t do it anymore. Mr. Corbat?”

Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat: “We exited student lending in 2009. Mr. Dimon?”

JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon: “When the government took over student lending in 2010 or so, we stopped doing all student lending.”

Duh.

Waters then switched her line of questioning to small business loans.

Clueless.