Actions have consequences. Delta Airlines recently lost $40 million worth of Georgia fuel tax breaks after dropping the NRA from its discount affiliate program following the Parkland shooting. Delta and its shareholders surely felt the sting of that decision.
But the move against Delta may come to look like a drop in the bucket. Citibank could take a hit that would completely redefine the expression “get woke, go broke.” That’s because a group of Republican congressmen want to kill Citibank’s $700 billion contract with Uncle Sam over the bank’s new post-Parkland anti-gun policies.
Congressman Todd Rokita of Indiana (above) got the ball rolling against the “too big to fail” banking giant. He read about Citibank’s decision to discriminate against those lawfully able to own and possess firearms as well as the bank’s decision to impose arbitrary standards on sales of standard-capacity magazines and certain firearm accessories for business customers.
Rep. Rokita isn’t a fan of the bank’s arbitrary discrimination against gun-owning consumers and retailers who sell firearms, so he’s taking action. He, and some of his fellow congressman want the General Services Administration to kill a $700 billion contract Citibank has to run a portion of the federal government’s purchase card operation.
The Daily Caller has the latest:
Sixteen Republican congressmen are asking the General Services Administration (GSA) to reevaluate a $700 billion contract with Citibank as a result of the the financial institution’s “anti-Second Amendment policies.”
The congressmen, led by Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita, sent a letter to GSA Administrator Emily Murphy on Wednesday, asking her to terminate the contract in response to Citibank’s March announcement restricting its clients participation in gun sales.
“In 2017, the General Services Administration (GSA) awarded Citibank a contract of more than $700 billion to partially implement the federal charge card program, SmartPay 3,” the congressmen wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Because of Citibank’s new guidelines targeting customers wishing to exercise their legal Second Amendment rights, we urge you to cancel Citibank’s participation in the SmartPay 3 contract, and award it to a company that does not unfairly restrict a customer’s constitutional rights,” it reads.
Citibank took almost half a trillion dollars of bailout money during the banking crisis a decade ago. Now they want to discriminate against some lawful businesses and certain law-abiding Americans — people whose tax dollars bailed them out.
Losing a lucrative contract of this size would serve as a significant blow for the big bank. And it would send a message that corporate virtue signaling and caving to vocal anti-gun organizations has its costs.
Imagine the outrage if Citibank had proposed withholding services to retailers who served African-Americans. Or members of the LGBT community. How long would that policy last?
Denying constitutional rights to young adults is no less appalling than discriminating against African-Americans based on the color of their skin. Then again, keeping blacks and other so-called “undesirables” disarmed served as one of the primary reasons for enacting gun control laws in the first place.