Protecting Arizona Workers from Crypto Corruption
By Carlos Chavez Member of Boilermakers Local 627, Democratic Precinct Committeeman for LD23, small business owner, and member of the East Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Like most people, I juggle a lot of responsibilities. I work hard and play by the rules, and I don’t ask for special favors to get ahead. I’m a proud member of Boilermakers Local 627, a small business owner, and a community advocate in Phoenix’s East Valley. Everyday, I see first hand how hard it is for Arizona’s working families to make ends meet. When workers clock in on a job site or entrepreneurs open their doors, we do it expecting a level playing field so we all have a shot at success.
The cryptocurrency legislation moving through the United States Senate right now, known as the CLARITY Act, threatens to further upset the balance of our financial system – enriching political elites while working people get left behind. It’s a largely Republican proposal backed by President Trump and big-money crypto lobbyists. We need our Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego to defend everyday Arizonans and vote no on this corrupt bill.
Not only does this legislation put the financial stability of everyday Americans at risk, it completely ignores the staggering pay-to-play corruption happening at the highest levels of power. We know from government disclosures that Donald Trump earned over $1.4 billion in crypto income in a single year—including over $500 million from his family’s company, World Liberty Financial, and $635 million from $TRUMP meme coins.
The grift is getting worse by the day. When banking regulators recently granted conditional approval for a national trust bank charter to World Liberty Financial, it marked the first time in American history that a sitting President utilized his own political appointees to charter and oversee a private bank run by his family. This corrupt arrangement gives the Trump family a federal license to issue stablecoins, manage digital assets, and watch the profits multiply while they hold power.
The CLARITY Act would do nothing to stop this corruption. Rather, it would allow it to spread. It leaves the back door wide open for politicians and their children to shape federal policy for personal gain. The political elites get richer, and everyday Americans continue to struggle.
Organized labor across the country is standing up in strong opposition to the CLARITY Act because it directly threatens working people’s financial security and retirement. By treating digital assets more leniently than traditional financial institutions, the bill allows volatile crypto firms to avoid the strict oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and instead choose the far understaffed Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Worse, the bill’s “tokenization” provisions allow corporations to issue “shadow stocks” on a blockchain, dodging SEC disclosures. Plainly speaking, this opens the floodgates for reckless crypto speculation inside hard-earned pension funds and 401(k) accounts. Those of us who sweat for decades to secure a modest retirement should not have to worry about it being gambled away in an unregulated digital currency market.
We cannot allow our financial markets to be deregulated just so Donald Trump and the Trump family can add to their billions at the expense of working people. Senators Kelly and Gallego – I ask you to stand firm with the men and women of organized labor, protect our pensions and the benefits that hardworking Arizonans have earned. Vote no on the CLARITY Act and help put a stop to Donald Trump’s flagrant corruption.
