Supporters of a plan to raise the U.S. government’s deposit insurance limit 40-fold to $10 million for non-interest-bearing deposits claim it will protect small businesses and the financial system. Don’t be fooled. The bill in question, the Main Street Depositor Protection Act, isn’t about safeguarding deposits; it’s about expanding government power over banks, and ultimately, over you.
The Pinpoint Policy Institute joined the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Americans for Tax Reform and other conservative organizations in a September 2025 letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to reject these hikes.
We’ve seen this playbook over and over. Leading liberals in Congress want to expand the federal safety net because doing so gives them more control over banks — no need to take our word for it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the principal supporters of raising the deposit insurance limit, told reporters repeatedly in 2023 that more deposit insurance must be tied to expanded bank oversight. What does that look like?
For these supporters, it could be more than you imagine. In 2021, the Biden administration proposed a comprehensive plan to require banks to report customer account transactions to the IRS. That proposal would have forced banks to monitor and report virtually every American’s financial activity under the guise of cracking down on tax evasion. It was a surveillance scheme dressed up as fiscal responsibility, and it sparked bipartisan outrage before quietly dying in Congress.
Or consider Operation Choke Point, an Obama-era initiative that pressured banks to sever ties with politically disfavored industries, such as firearms and ammunition sales, and short-term lenders. The Department of Justice used its authority to label these businesses “high risk,” effectively blacklisting them from the financial system without due process.
And it didn’t stop there. Under the Obama and Biden administrations, we’ve seen a disturbing rise in “debanking,” the quiet cancellation of bank accounts belonging to conservatives, religious groups and political dissidents. From religious nonprofits to critics of COVID policies to immigration detention contractors to President Trump, politically “disfavored” institutions and individuals were effectively locked out of the financial system.
This is not a conspiracy theory. It happened. Trump rightly issued an executive order in August ordering banks to stop the debanking of conservatives, and his bank regulators are following through on that promise.
We can’t count on conservatives staying in power forever. That’s why the Hagerty-Alsobrooks deposit insurance bill is a Trojan horse. This isn’t about protecting deposits — it’s about laying the groundwork for federal micromanagement of the banking industry. Warren and her allies aim to use expanded deposit insurance as a means to impose their regulatory vision on every corner of the financial system.
When they’re back in power, they will use the pretext of more government risk due to higher coverage as justification for more regulations and intrusion into the banking industry. Not only will this raise bank fees we all must pay, but it will also open the door to more DEI requirements and more “Community Reinvestment Act” rules. They will, once again, weaponize access to banking to advance their political agenda.
Ask yourself: Why else would they be supporting a policy like this when 99 percent of deposit accounts are already covered under the current $250,000 limit? This isn’t about helping Americans, it’s about helping the rich. Warren claims to be a populist — does this seem populist to you? Of course not. It’s the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent, and she knows it. It’s why Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is calling for higher deposit insurance limits.
When the government expands its backing of banks, it gains leverage to enforce ideological conformity. Deposit insurance reform may sound like a technical fix, but it’s part of a broader campaign to turn banks into instruments of federal power.
Conservatives must sound the alarm. You’ve seen how liberals want to use banks: financial surveillance and political discrimination. If we don’t push back now, we may find the price of this added “protection” is our freedom.