AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

One of the worst parts of Congress is the public hearings. They almost never accomplish anything, nor reveal new information, and simply serve as a visual medium for egotistical, press hungry members to grandstand.

Naturally, that means Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez absolutely loves them.

Because big government is always inherently good, despite millennium of evidence to the contrary, she decided to to go after cryptocurrency.

.@AOC: Currently Libra's governed by Facebook, Uber eBay, Spotify, Visa… Were they democratically elected?

Facebook’s Crypto Chief: No, Congresswoman.

AOC: So we're discussing a currency controlled by an undemocratically selected coalition of largely massive corporations. pic.twitter.com/ks5XbagGWg

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) July 17, 2019

Now, it may be true that big corporations are motivated to build the Libra as a currency to buy their products. The question should be, so what? As American companies, they’ll still be regulated just like they’ve always been regulated. She might as well have been asking McDonald’s if they serve breakfast burritos. The answer would have been yes and it would have been just as meaningful as this supposed “gotcha” moment.

I say supposed because AOC, despite claiming to have an economics degree and wanting to remake the whole economy in her image, apparently doesn’t how the Federal Reserve operates.

Lol. Who elected… central bankers? This woman should NOT be on the Financial Services Committee. https://t.co/J1Q9McIN5G

— Liz Mair (@LizMair) July 18, 2019

Maybe AOC can let us know when & where the elections for the Federal Reserve was??!?!?

— David W Mooney (@DavidWMooney1) July 17, 2019

Her defenders will now rush and tell us “well, ACKSHUALLY the President appoints the board of governors for the Federal Reserve and that’s totally what she meant.”

Quick thought exercise. Would any Democrat or AOC herself consider Brett Kavanaugh democratically elected? I’m going to go with a no on that with a confidence level of so high that it’d make Cheech and Chong envious.

Let’s deal with the substance of her critique though. The overarching counter is that the Fed has essentially no accountability whatsoever. It’s a bunch of people from major corporations with fourteen year terms that basically do whatever they want. Voters cannot check them like other positions. We can’t even get a bill through that would allow an audit of what they are doing. But AOC thinks she’s just entered the gotcha hall of fame by pointing out that private companies aren’t democratically elected. Well no, but they are subject to market forces, which serve as a much better check on power than a bloated federal government that can’t manage anything properly.

The reason cryptocurrency is gaining popularity is precisely because it’s more open and transparent compared to the secretive gyrations of the Fed. But because it would place monetary policy outside of AOC’s hands, she’s against it. That’s really her litmus test for everything.

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