We all know that innovation is central to human progress. It allows individuals to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. It has given us the technology to make goods and services cheaper, safer, and more widely available. More importantly, innovation transforms lives for the better — whether it is financial technology allowing low-income Americans to become financially healthy through budgeting tools or an app that allows people to track their health habits.
We value the ability to live more convenient lives, but we often forget that innovation requires an environment in which it can flourish. It needs risk-takers and entrepreneurs, whether they are individuals or small businesses. It depends on an environment in which the right allocation of capital is supported. And it needs a stable and predictable government to create clear rules of the road.
Under the Biden administration, the climate for innovation in this country is at its worst in memory.
This is a direct result of its misguided ideology and the administration’s hard-left swing. Democratic policies emphasizing regulation and more government have created an unfavorable environment for technology and innovation. It is nearly impossible to build upon something under constant attack of new regulations and out-of-touch standards. This limits economic growth, ultimately harming consumers and households. Moreover, it’s these same heavy-handed policies that protect and reward large incumbent corporations and suppress competition, entrepreneurship, and risk-taking.
There’s no better example of these dangerous policies than in the long-awaited release of the Presidential Working Group on Stablecoins. Rather than seize the opportunity to move the United States forward and provide clear rules of the road for the digital asset industry, the Biden Treasury Department punted, acquiescing to the loudest voices in the room and perpetuating the turf wars already hindering this nascent industry.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen an explosion in the development and use of digital assets. Digital assets and their underlying technology hold great promise in facilitating cheaper payments both here and abroad for consumers. The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to call digital assets one thing, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission another, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency something else. The Biden administration could have brought clarity to this market and its participants to help it grow. Instead, it chose to reward incumbent regulators and empower uncertainty. This will only deter investment in new technology and limit the market’s ability to reach its full potential.
When our small businesses and economy need it most, we should be encouraging their risk-taking and entrepreneurship. More government, bureaucracy, and uncertainty will not result in progress. It will not lead to better products or services. It will not make our lives better. Instead of Congress and this administration working together to promote and encourage tangible financial opportunity in a sustainable way or ensuring that the U.S. remains a global leader, Democrats are working to undo anything accomplished under the Trump administration, even if it means sacrificing the good of the people. When political theater and fear-based legislation meet, innovation is stifled, and consumers suffer.
Real long-term economic growth in the U.S. depends on innovation, as it always has. Innovation and real economic growth flourish when there is a free exchange of ideas and low barriers to entry. The federal government’s job is to create clear rules of the road where innovators and Americans alike have certainty. It should support risk-taking and entrepreneurship. And it should create a clear regulatory framework and get out of the way. We should prioritize open access to financial services and work to protect and promote innovation in our markets so that consumers have as many pathways as possible to prosperity and achieving the American dream.
Congressional Republicans stand ready to implement policies to do just that. These are the policies Members of the Republican Jobs and Economy Task Force are focused on to ensure innovation will flourish, Americans will prosper, and the U.S. will maintain its leadership in the global economy. We are the nation we are because of the movers, shakers, and innovators. We can’t let the spark of the American entrepreneurial spirit die.
Byron Donalds represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District.
