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Your retirement money should NOT be used to help advance the left's climate and social agenda. Later today, I'll be voting to help prevent that from happening. Here’s what you need to know:

There’s a liberal movement in investing and business known as “ESG.” That stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. It’s a form of virtue signaling where company leaders invest money and resources into social justice causes, or environmental causes, or whatever causes the political left believes ought to be paid for with other people’s money.

If you have majority ownership in a company and believe that’s where it should focus its money and time, fine; have at it. But if you manage a company owned by others (e.g. a corporation with shareholders), then you have a RESPONSIBILITY to be good stewards of what they own.

That’s why so many investors are outraged over this ESG nonsense. When you see larger companies going down this road, often it’s just weak, cowardly leadership. They’d prefer to capitulate rather than tell liberal activists to pound sand. Case in point: Disney.

Anyway, back in November, the Biden Labor Department published a ruling that essentially authorizes retirement plan managers to consider ESG factors in their investment decisions. Let’s think about this ruling for a minute…

For the sake of time, I’m going to oversimplify this paragraph: Within your retirement plan, most of your money is likely invested with various companies. You are part owner of those companies. (A tiny part, yes, but an owner nonetheless.) When those companies do well, your investments increase in value, which is what you need to reach your retirement goals.

So you obviously expect those who manage your retirement dollars – whether it’s a company’s leadership or your retirement fund managers – to be making smart decisions with your money, not using it to pursue whatever social justice or environmental cause of the day happens to be.

That’s why this Biden Administration ruling was so misguided. It gives the green light to retirement plan managers to consider ESG factors in their investment decisions. What does that mean? Well, it almost certainly means a marginal company might get more consideration if it’s spending time and money to promote ESG. Likewise, it probably means a great company could get less consideration if it doesn’t subscribe to this ESG nonsense.

You see the problem with that, right?

That’s why I’ll be voting for a bill today – H.J. Res. 30 – which will block Biden’s Labor Department from implementing this terrible rule. I’m actually a co-sponsor of this legislation, because retirement plan managers ought to make their decisions based on legitimate metrics, not how “woke” a company is.