Tom Emmer on the Dangers of a Government-Issued CBDC

The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act

• 🎯 The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act aims to prevent the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by unelected bureaucrats.
• 💡 The bill seeks to ensure that U.S. digital currency policy remains with the American people, not the administrative state.

Risks of a Government-Controlled CBDC

• ⚠️ A CBDC is described as a government-controlled, programmable digital currency that could fundamentally alter Americans' lives.
• 🔍 Without privacy protections akin to cash, a CBDC could allow the federal government to surveil and restrict transactions, monitoring every aspect of daily financial activity.
• 🚫 This would eliminate cash, anonymity, and private financial decision-making, giving Washington the ability to track every dollar spent, where, and with whom.

International Examples and U.S. Precedents

• 🇨🇳 The Chinese Communist Party uses a CBDC to monitor and restrict citizens' spending, developing a social credit system based on behavior.
• 🇨🇦 Canada's former administration froze bank accounts of truckers protesting COVID mandates, demonstrating the power of federal financial surveillance.
• 🇺🇸 Under the Biden administration, an executive order prioritized CBDC research, with agency reports indicating a willingness to trade financial privacy for a surveillance tool.

Protecting American Values

• 🛡️ The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act is designed to prevent future administrations from weaponizing CBDC technology against Americans.
• ✅ It ensures any digital money development reflects American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness.
• 🗽 A government-issued CBDC, if not designed to be open, permissionless, and private like cash, is seen as an Orwellian surveillance tool that erodes the American way of life.
• ⚖️ The bill aims to protect liberty, limited government, and the right to privacy, ensuring technological evolution doesn't jeopardize core American principles.