Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren and her progressive allies reintroduced the Stop Wall Street Looting Act. The bill weaponizes the federal government against private investments, threatening to destroy millions of jobs, bankrupt local businesses, and gut the retirement returns that public pensioners rely on.
The legislation is a sweeping government intervention into private markets that would make private investment economically unworkable. It would expose investment firms to unlimited liability for portfolio company debts, impose expensive disclosure mandates, and repeal the pass-through deduction for real estate investment trust investors — rolling back the provision enacted in the 2017 Trump tax cuts. This is the fourth introduction of the bill — having failed to become law in 2019, 2021, and 2024.
Here is what policy experts, economists, and business leaders are actually saying about the Stop Wall Street Looting Act:
An Anti-Growth Attack on American Enterprise:
“Senator Warren’s recycled Stop Wall Street Looting Act is a direct attack on American free enterprise and the retirement security of millions of hardworking families. This legislation would wipe out millions of jobs, siphon hundreds of billions in tax revenue, and hand unprecedented control of the economy to Washington bureaucrats. It is an anti-growth disaster waiting to happen.” – Eric Ventimiglia, Executive Director, Pinpoint Policy Institute
It Will Destroy Millions of Jobs and Decimate Tax Revenue:
“[The bill] would result in a loss in the range of 6.9 million to 26.3 million jobs across the United States; would result in combined Federal, state, and local governments losing a combined $109 billion annually in tax revenues… in a modest case scenario, or $475 billion in a worst-case scenario.” – U.S. Chamber of Commerce
It Will Harm Main Street:
“The ‘Stop Wall Street Looting Act’ would unintentionally cause serious harm to small businesses’ ability to access capital… It would harm Main Street much more than it would harness Wall Street. It is bad legislation based on an incorrect concept of investing.” – Small Business Investor Alliance
It Will Force Struggling Businesses to Fail:
“The additional regulatory burdens would make it prohibitive for private equity to invest in solutions to turn businesses around. The irony is that without cash injections from private equity companies, many businesses would fail sooner, leaving employees out in the cold.” – National Taxpayers Union
It Will Hurt the Retirees and Pension Funds It Claims to Protect:
“The irony is that public pension funds have been increasing their investments in these vampires, er, private-equity funds as they shoot for higher returns to finance generous worker retirements. The 10-year average annual return for private equity is 10.2%—13.63% in Ms. Warren’s home state—compared to 8.5% for stocks and 6.7% overall. Why does the Senator want to hurt union retirees?” – The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
It Protects Incompetent Corporate Management:
“The ‘Stop Wall Street Looting Act’ (WSLA) would be more aptly named the ‘Protect Incompetent Management Act.’ The WSLA would erect a moat and high walls around failing companies so that it would become virtually impossible, and certainly economically unattractive, to take over failing companies and replace their management.” – David Burton, Senior Fellow in Economic Policy at The Heritage Foundation
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