Pat Toomey

I think you mentioned that Lancaster County will receive about $106 million as a result of the bill passed in March by our Democratic colleagues.

I have yet to receive a response. When will Treasury respond and comply with my request?

I think we should consider the development of private digital currencies.

In fact, there are a lot of reasons to believe China's digital currency will not be terribly appealing.

In my view, turning the Fed into a retail bank is not a good idea.

Private digital currencies have the potential to increase access to financial services for all Americans while increasing individual privacy.

What problem is the central bank digital currency trying to solve? In other words, do we need one?

China, after all, has a State-controlled economy, has a repressive authoritarian Government that has got capital controls on the yuan.

I do not think we need a State-sponsored bank interfering with this very successful free enterprise system.

But we should not lose sight of the tremendous benefits that the underlying technology that digital currencies offer.

Nor do we want a Government entity like the Fed positioned to possibly infringe on our privacy.

The Fed, after all, has absolutely no experience in that realm.

Why haven't you provided the reports and the drawdown reports, right down to account level detail?

That is a massive amount of spending increase when we have, let us face it, a very strong economy, 5.8 percent unemployment.

I have a concern, and my concern is how much detailed information we have about what is actually available to be repurposed.

That is just unbelievable, the spending, everywhere you look.

For 50 years, average spending has been about 20 percent of GDP, just a little more than that. Under the President's budget, spending remains at about 25 percent of GDP.

I think it would be good to try to get back to that.

We had the best economy in 50 years. And that is if you measure it by objective metrics.

I just want to close by urging you please defend the capitalist system that has worked so well for so many for so long.

I am concerned about increasing pressure on banks to embrace 'wokeism' and appease the far left's attacks on capitalism.

It seems to me, in fact, that access to credit is a necessary precondition for poor people to move up to the middle class, not the other way around.

Do you believe that capitalism is the best economic system for producing the most prosperity for the greatest number of people?

Put simply, neither the warming of the Earth's temperature nor severe weather events are a threat to the stability of the financial system.

Congress has provided the Fed with a great deal of independence to isolate it from political influence.