Tim Scott, In Character

Federal regulators took their eyes off the ball, focusing on progressive priorities, like climate change policy, instead of their mission: ensuring that Americans’ banks are safe and stable. pic.twitter.com/NDolWLDJmg

— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) April 3, 2023

Newsweek reminds us that

Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress approved a rollback of financial regulations in 2018 that may have contributed to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

Bipartisan majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate approved S. 2155, which axed regulatory requirements for regional banks with less than $250 billion in assets and was signed by then-President Donald Trump, meaning such banks did not need to submit to stress testing.

Yes, those "socially moderate, economically conservative" members of Congress whom the mainstream media adores and were woke liberals when woke, corporate liberalism was politically expedient. That was before 

There has been renewed focus on the bill after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a regional bank based in California's Silicon Valley tech corridor, collapsed on Friday after its customers initiated a run on their deposits.

The bill made changes to the earlier Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which had been signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, and required banks with more than $50 billion in assets to submit to stress testing.

SVB had over $200 billion in assets by the end of 2022 and was one of the 20 largest banks in the U.S.

While 17 Democrats voted in favor of bank run amok, most Democrats voted against it and every Republican voted in favor.  Too often, that is what center-left media means when it pleads for bipartisanship- both parties striving to maintain the wealth and power of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of consumers or workers.

Well, what do you know? One of those GOP senators is the fellow who now says "federal regulators took their eyes off the ball," neglecting to acknowledge that he joined every other Republican (and seventeen Democrats) in helping prevent regulators from keeping their eyes on the ball. The junior senator from South Dakota joined his fellow Republicans in promoting the conditions leading to the run on Silicon Valley Bank.

Hypocrisy, or at least the effort to have things both ways, is nothing new for Senator Tim Scott, who when he gave the GOP rebuttal to President Biden's first State of the Union address, stated  

 I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while I’m shopping. I remember, every morning, at the kitchen table, my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it — I thought....

I’ve also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called “Uncle Tom” and the n-word by progressives, by liberals.

Moments later he would declare "Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.... and we get to live in the greatest country on Earth."  He did not explain what would make an America, in which such discrimination is common, actually racist.

If he currently is being called the "n-word," he needs to call people out. By name. And yet

Tim Scott is a complete phony but is rumored to believe he has a chance to become the 2024 Republican nominee for President. Make that Tim Scott is a complete phony and therefore believes he has  a chance to become the 2024 Republican nominee for President."

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