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MT-Sen: Sen. Jon Tester (D), "There's no reason why crypto should exist" [1]
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Date: 2022-12-12
Sen. Jon Tester (D. MT)
With the Georgia runoff over and the 2024 Presidential Election already in full swing, it’s best to also start looking into the down ballot elections and special elections we will have next year and in 2024. But looking to the U.S. Senate, I wanted to take a moment to highlight something from an incumbent U.S. Senator up for re-election in 2024 recently said that I felt deserved some attention:
x EXCLUSIVE: Cryptocurrency has not “been able to pass the smell test” for Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.).@SenatorTester: “If we regulate it, it may give it the ability for people to think it’s real.” pic.twitter.com/E2OwQsJ9R3 — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 11, 2022 Another crypto-skeptic United States senator is on the loose, with Democrat Jon Tester boldly stating that he sees “no reason why” crypto should exist. Tester is the senior senator of Montana and has held a seat there since 2007. He also serves on the Senate Banking Committee, which is one of the key players involved in the ongoing debate over U.S. crypto regulation. During a Dec. 11 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Tester argued that as crypto has no real value at all, the sector shouldn’t be regulated, as that would give it legitimacy. “It's not been able to pass the smell test for me. I have not been able to find anybody who's been able to explain to me what's there other than synthetics [...] which means nothing,” he said, adding that: “The problem is if we regulate it, and I pointed this out to some of the regulators here a week or two ago, if we regulated it, it may give it the ability of people to think it's real.” In line with such thinking, Tester then went on to state that he sees “no reason why this stuff should exist” at all.
Tester is not alone in his criticism of cryptocurrency:
x "It's all bullshit."
As lawmakers debate how to regulate the crypto industry, more are openly trashing it pic.twitter.com/G2MD5YulN0 — Semafor (@semafor) December 1, 2022 At a moment when Congress is finally debating whether and how to seriously regulate the cryptocurrency industry, a split appears to have formed in the Democratic Party. Some of its lawmakers are contemplating how to harness blockchain technology into a force for innovation, while scaling back its early excesses. Then there’s a group you might call the “bullshit caucus.” “It’s all bullshit,” Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. told Semafor. He was wary of the industry even before the recent collapse of crypto exchange FTX, he said, and recent meetings with advocates have not given him any more confidence in its fundamental value. “I don't think it passes the smell test. I can't figure out what supports it.” (FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is an investor in Semafor.) “Finally, there are more people blowing the bullshit whistle,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. said in a Wednesday interview. “There's been a lot of lobbying around Congress and an effort to try to scare off lawmakers. To say ‘Oh, crypto is just so complicated. No one can understand it. Let the crypto world remain unregulated.’ That is precisely the argument that was made in the run-up to the 2008 crash.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt. skipped the profanity, but echoed the sentiment. “I’m not a big fan of cryptocurrencies,” he told Semafor. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who heads the powerful Banking Committee, was equally dismissive. “Clearly, they've not shown a real public purpose for their existence,” he said. “They made some people rich, they made a lot of people lose money.”
I originally wasn’t the completely against the idea of cryptocurrency when it first started and even believed it should be regulated but at this point I’m with Senator Tester on this. Especially since it’s a scam being run by these types of assholes:
Sam Bankman-Fried says he’s “willing” to testify in front of Congress, but it doesn’t mean he’ll explain FTX’s collapse FTX’s founder and former chief is finally ready to testify in front of Congress. Bankman-Fried, widely known as SBF, has been added to the list of speakers for the House Committee hearing titled “Investigating the Collapse of FTX, Part I” scheduled for tomorrow (Dec. 13). SBF’s participation at the hearing had been up in the air for days after the event was announced on Nov. 28. In the meantime, YouTuber Tiffany Fong released an edited phone conversation in which the two discussed FTX’s bankruptcy and political donations, and he made an appearance at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit via video to discuss the collapse of FTX. So when he cast doubt on having enough information to attend the House hearing, lawmakers weren’t having it. They still demanded that he attend, and he eventually confirmed his participation on Dec. 9. “I still do not have access to much of my data—professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like,” he wrote in a tweet. “But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th.”
Tester is one of the most vulnerable Democratic Senators up for re-election in 2024 and it remains to be seen what decision Tester will make:
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on Sunday indicated he had not yet decided whether he will run for reelection but expressed confidence he could pull off a win. “If I decide to run in this thing, and it’ll be a discussion that I have with my family over the holidays because it is a big undertaking, I feel good about my chances,” Tester told NBC’s Chuck Todd during an appearance on “Meet the Press.” “People are going to come after me,” Tester, who would be one of the most vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrats if he runs in two years, added. “They’ve come after me in the past, but that’s politics. And we’ll get through it and then hopefully be successful come November of 2024.”
Tester isn’t wrong about people are coming after him. The GOP is foaming at the mouth to flip his seat:
Republicans emboldened by a string of electoral victories in Montana this midterm election are quickly turning their attention to a prize that has repeatedly eluded them: the U.S. Senate seat held by three-term Democrat Jon Tester that is up for grabs in 2024. That sets up a potential bruising primary battle between the two Republicans who won U.S. House seats Tuesday — former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Rep. Matt Rosendale. Zinke, 61, told The Associated Press Thursday he considers Tester vulnerable, and he will make a decision on whether to seek the Senate seat next year. Rosendale, 62, said Tester doesn’t represent Montana’s interests and should be replaced, but he declined to answer when asked if he will run. Tester is expected to be among the most vulnerable Democrats in the U.S. Senate in the next election cycle along with fellow moderates Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Voters in Montana and West Virginia have increasingly trended Republican, while Arizona has become a key swing state targeted by both parties.
But Tester has been one of the few Democrats who has been able to win a rural red state like Montana:
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Tester said Democrats need to focus their messaging “more on the things we’re doing for rural America.” Tester pointed to bills he’s working on that deal with big packers and meat consolidation, which he said would help cow and calf operators make a better living. He also said he doesn’t believe Democrats talk about their accomplishments in a way that appeals to rural voters “nearly enough,” citing the bipartisan infrastructure law that passed Congress last year. “It’s going to help rural America big time, when it comes to broadband and electrical distribution and roads and bridges. We didn’t talk about it,” he said. “We didn’t talk about it from a rural perspective.”
It’s very understandable that Tester needs to put a lot of thought into his re-election bid and not only will it be a Presidential Election year and potentially with Trump being on the ballot, there will also be a gubernatorial election in Montana as well. No word yet on whether Governor Greg Gianforte (R. MT) will seek re-election. I personally hope Tester runs for re-election. I have enthusiastically supported his past campaigns and think he is a great Senator and I will happily do it again in 2024. Stay tuned.
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