RFK Jr. Presidential Candidate and DeSantis Unite Against FedNow
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) and Ron DeSantis protested the FedNow payments system because they believed it would lead to the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency. (CBDC).
Claims that FedNow is not the first step toward CBDC would be easier to digest were we not aware of the Biden administration’s continued barrage of adversarial rhetoric, said Democrat RFK Jr., nephew of former president John F. Kennedy Jr., in a thread on Twitter on April 11 . He called the CBDC “the ultimate mechanism for social surveillance and control”.
While this bubble always bursts, he continues, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin’s $30,114 “give the public a way out of the splash zone,” and he alleges that the Joe Biden administration is “collaborating with bankers to keep us all trapped in a profiteering and control bubble.”
A week ago, RFK Jr. said that the CBCD “lubricated the slippery slope towards financial slavery and political tyranny” and that he had criticized it harshly. RFK Jr. submitted his campaign documents on April 5. With the aim of accelerating transfers between financial institutions and enterprises and offering a government-backed alternative to comparable networks offered by the private sector, FedNow is a 24/7 fast payment system scheduled to debut in July.
The Fed played down rumors that the system would be bundled with a CBDC. In response to many common inquiries, it stated on April 8 that “no decision” had been made to issue a CBDC and that it “would not do so without the express support of Congress and the executive branch, ideally in the form of a specific authorized law.”
Republican Governor of Florida DeSantis said that “it’s not only ‘ideal’ that major changes in policy receive special authorization from Congress; it is constitutionally required” in a tweet on April 11 in response to the Fed statement. According to DeSantis, “An irresponsible agency cannot impose CBDCs on Americans.”
While they may try to convince us that (CBDC) will not be exploited, we are smart enough to know otherwise. This wolf appeared in the form of a wolf, he continued.
DeSantis apparently opposes the CBDC and is considering a presidential run himself. On March 20, he demanded that CBDCs be banned in Florida, expressing concern about how they could be used to monitor and control residents.
However, some people are still not persuaded by these claims.
The fears about privacy raised by JFK Jr. and DeSantis, according to former US Treasury official and current chief economist Aaron Klein, is unfounded, his claims in an interview with NBC News on April 7.
Klein said the CBDC would not further infringe on people’s privacy because financial companies are already required to submit transaction data in accordance with current anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing regulations. He claims that DeSantis was mistaken in believing that central bank digital currencies would require more reporting than commercial bank digital currencies.
On April 11, Klein spoke again with AFP Fact Check and reiterated that FedNow’s only goal is to speed up existing Fed payment lines. Klein stated that using a CBDC or Visa card “has no difference in privacy or oversight”, and that FedNow and CBDC “have nothing to do with each other”.
