Two Senators have unveiled a new bill that would have the Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs that were built to support the federal stimulus efforts, a plan that Texas Representative Ron Paul had already introduced several months ago and currently enjoys more than 300 sponsors and investigates the Federal Reserve much more deeply.
Senators Jeff Merkley (D – Oregon) and Bob Corker (R – Tennessee) are sponsoring the “Federal Reserve Accountability Act” legislation.
“The bill directs the GAO — the investigative arm of Congress — to audit emergency lending programs that aren’t already subject to government audits,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Both Senators see the bill as a balance between protecting taxpayer money and “respecting the central bank’s responsibility to manage monetary policy,” according to Merkley. Federal Reserve officials, however, are less than optimistic about the bill’s isolation from monetary policy.
“The bill avoids review of the Fed’s regular lending programs, such as the longstanding discount window, and its interest-rate decisions. But some of the emergency programs are central to monetary policy operations that the Fed wants to keep outside of GAO review,” the Journal’s report said.
Ron Paul’s similar legislation dives much more deeply into the practice of the Federal Reserve and opens up an investigation into all aspects of the central bank and their operations – not simply the emergency programs. Currently, Paul’s bill enjoys 303 co-sponsors, which includes more than 100 Democrats.
Corker said in an interview that his bill is only a “minimal step” into auditing the Federal Reserve, which stands as less-than-encouraging news for those who want to get to the bottom of the central bank’s policies.
We can’t let these elite clowns take away our representation by undercutting the original bill! That is the opposite of accountability!
This is just another atempt by politicians to undercut an important bill. These people are obviously already controlled by the FED. This is typical of the morons that supposedly represent the American people. It is time for the American people to get off their butts, and respond to these liars the only way they will understand. If these representatives of the people don’t do as the majority wants, it’s time to do whatever it takes, to take our country back. Our forefathers are probably turning over in their graves, at the way our leaders have abandoned the constitution. It makes me ashamed to be a part of a country that has tuned its back on the ideals that the first leaders had in mind. Please read the constitution and don’t sell your country for power and money.
Full audit only! I already wrote my Senator and the other one that does not represent me technically.
Any compromise on having the ability to review the Fed at any and all levels is unjust to the Amercian Taxpayer. “We the People” have the right to know what is going on with our artificially controlled paper money and to who(m) we are endebted to. Another reason to not have much confidence in our elected officials and we need to continue to flush them out of office and keep searching for people who truly represent the people not Wall Street or even worse International interests.
Maybe the Fed is more powerful then Congress and possibly even greater than the President himself!
This is a naked attempt by Merkley and Corker to derail Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, which has broad bipartisan support.
The Federal Reserve inflated the biggest financial bubble since the Great Depression, has destroyed the value of the dollar (it’s now worth just pennies of what it was worth in 1913), and has squandered trillions of dollars of OUR money. Yet when Congress asks the Fed to explain where all the money went, Bernanke smugly replies that answering that question would be “counterproductive.”
In other words, we the people are being rebuked for the impudence of asking our glorious money masters to explain themselves!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. The Federal Reserve MUST be held accountable, just like every other institution in this country, public or private. The harder that the Fed fights being audited, the more we must wonder: what, exactly, are they so afraid that we’ll discover? What are they so desperate to hide?
I urge everyone to tell their Senators to SUPPORT S.604 and OPPOSE the disingenuous “Federal Reserve Accountability Act” bill.
THIS JUST…ugh….I MEAN…….geez OF ALL THE GALL…..grrrrrrrrr
I’m sorry, I’m too upset to ……………………..AAAGHHHHHH!!!!!!