"Audit the Fed" is dead

When I was at CPAC in February, Congressman Ron Paul announced to the capacity crowd at the Omni Shoreham that he had introduced a bill in the House that would (from my understanding), for the first time ever, audit the books of the Federal Reserve. This came as no shock to any of us who have followed Dr. Paul since his 2007-08 Presidential run. Later developments did induce some surprise, however; not only did many other Congressmen, including my own (Dan Burton) sign on as co-sponsors, but the bill passed the House last month.

That the Federal Reserve exists at all is a testament not only to how far we have strayed from the wishes of the Founding Fathers, but how much control we have ceded to the centralized State. (More on that in a future blog post, which I hope to have up very soon.) That it has never once been audited by either the government or an independent agency and that it operates as much in secret as it does is nothing short of a travesty, unworthy of our heritage.

Ron Paul is a true patriot, exemplified by so many of his stances over the years, among them sounding the alarm on the machinations of the Federal Reserve the whole time. This bill was argued and passed with complete transparency, in contradistinction to the stimulus package and Cap & Trade debates. One other interesting factotum: the text of the bill (HR 1207) runs about a page and a half, as opposed to the gargantuan 1,000+ page affairs that comprised the Porkulus and Cap & Trade debacles. You can read it here.

Well, HR 1207 is DOA in the Senate. Not to say that it will never be resurrected; Ron Paul doesn't give up that easily, but it was awarded a swift demise. Senator Jim DeMint (God bless his valiant heart) did his best and has publicized it to the extent that he could; in fact, he was on Glenn Beck's TV show tonight spreading the word. And I have to take my hat off to Vermont's Senator Bernie Sanders, technically an Independent, but in reality, a card-carrying Socialist, for co-sponsoring the Senate version with DeMint. I don't know what Sanders' reasons were, nor do I particularly care; we'll take allies where we can when we fight for right. (Someone far wiser than I once said, "He who is not against us is for us", right?)

It would be one thing if Audit the Fed had been sent to the chopping block by the Democrats, but it wasn't. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard Shelby, R-Alabama did the dirty work on this, making sure it got blocked on a procedural tactic so they could continue to fight for business as usual in Washington, rather than allow the taxpayers of the United States to see what is being done with the revenue they generate that is force-cycled through Washington.

If this is the best the Republican Party can do, it doesn't deserve to survive and I speak as a Republican. If the default position of the GOP is to advocate secrecy for the Federal Reserve and block attempts to shine delight the Fed's deliberations with arcane parliamentary maneuvers, then we can do better. Career politicians, regardless of party, had better get ready for an accounting on this and other matters.

If I sound mad, then all I can say is, "Great deduction, Sherlock." The Fed exists to regulate (read, manipulate and inflate) the currency and has done a spectacular job of it over the last century. It is a Woodrow Wilson brainchild, created with the intent of obscuring the real meaning of currency and financial assets from the vast majority of the population at large. Chalk another point up for the elite at the expense of the regular folks. And don't tell me that Grassley and Shelby don't know it. If they don't, then they don't belong in the halls of Congress. But they do. And they know the spoils system all too well, which they are determined to protect.

Jim DeMint and the Senate Conservatives' Fund are looking better all the time.