DeSantis and Kennedy Jr. criticize Fed’s digital dollar plans.
The fed only plans to issue a digital dollar with Congress’ approval.
Kennedy Jr. conflates FedNow and CBDC concepts.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have accused the Federal Reserve (Fed) of seeking to use a proposed digital dollar to “control” Americans’ finances.
According to Ron, using the new US digital dollar allows the Government to block transactions such as buying riffles or filling up with “too much gas.”
During a conference held on Saturday in Pennsylvania, Ron DeSantis announced his plan to propose a bill that would eliminate the ESG agenda. “ESG” refers to policies the private sector implements to promote environmental, social, and governance principles.
This announcement came just a few days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine leader, took to Twitter to express his concerns. That was issuing a Fed digital dollar could allow the Government to monitor people’s financial statements. In other words, Kennedy Jr believed a government-controlled digital currency could increase citizens’ economic activity surveillance.
Kennedy’s tweet stated that the Government would impose transaction limits on people. This could lead to authorities restricting where people can send their assets. This, in turn, would allow those in charge to freeze assets or limit spending to only approved vendors, with non-compliance resulting in arbitrary diktats.
Federal Reserve officials are actively considering creating a digital dollar to keep up with countries like China that have already implemented their digital currencies. Nonetheless, they have clarified that their organization would only issue a digital dollar with explicit authorization from Congress.
Kennedy appeared to conflate two initiatives – the FedNow service and the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) concept. While the FedNow service is a bank-to-bank payment system, a CBDC would be a digital version of a country’s currency issued by the central bank.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Comments
On March 8th, during a Congressional hearing, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that any decision to release a digital currency to the public would require prior approval from lawmakers.
Powell emphasized that the central bank has yet to determine whether the financial system in the country would require or desire a digital-currency, making it a crucial consideration.
Last year, the Federal Reserve published a whitepaper that examined the potential benefits and drawbacks of introducing a digital currency. However, there was no indication in the document that the Fed was considering throttling transactions.