Look who flip-flopped on 'Audit the Fed'

[nbruno322]

Ron Paul: 'They may have won this battle, but they're not going to win the war'

Despite more than 120 co-sponsors of a bill to audit the Federal Reserve – nearly all Democrats – flip-flopping and voting against the effort, Rep. Ron Paul is warning that the Fed will not "win the war" for an honest monetary system.

Paul, R-Texas, has led the charge to audit the Federal Reserve, the private organization that sets interest rates and money policy affecting everyone in the United States.

For decades those decisions have been made behind closed doors, and Paul has been trying to open the door and allow some light to fall on the procedures. He sponsored the audit the Fed bill previously supported by 320 members of the House. However, the audit provision failed by a vote of 229-198.

"Even though they may have won this battle, they're not going to win the war," Paul said in a video posted today on the Daily Paul. "What they're doing is going to be devastating to us because this piece of legislation actually gave more power to the Federal Reserve – not less, more power to the regulators, more effort to keep themselves in secret. … For those individuals that believe in monetary reform and transparency, we will keep the heat on the Fed until we get an honest monetary system."

As WND reported, when efforts to force an audit came before the Senate, Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist but politically unaffiliated senator from Vermont, put forward new language that Paul warned would strip the teeth from the House version.

"At the very last minute on the floor of the Senate, supposed compromise language was agreed to and substituted in the Sanders Amendment to the Financial Reform Bill," Paul wrote on his blog. "This language was acceptable to the administration, committee leadership and to the Fed. The trouble is, while it is better than no audit at all, it guts the spirit of a truly meaningful audit of the most crucial transactions of the Fed. In fact, rather than still calling the Sanders Amendment an audit, maybe it should instead be called more of a disclosure at this point.

"The new language of the Sanders Amendment requires a one-time disclosure from the Fed of 13(3) facilities, foreign currency swaps and mortgage-backed securities," Paul explained. "Basically, their sins of the past would be revealed and Americans would know more about who got bailed out by the Fed and under what terms. This would be good, but it's not nearly enough."

In May, the White House said it was working with Sanders. They later came to a compromise, agreeing that the audit wouldn't influence the Fed's monetary policies. In negotiations with Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and officials from the Fed, Sanders successfully "watered down" the audit and restricted it to a one-time peek at lending activity from Dec. 1, 2007 until the present. The Senate passed the weaker amendment on May 11 by a vote of 96-0. The amendment had the support of the Obama administration.

The blog Cunning Realist noted, "Chuck Schumer, grinning, put his arm around Sanders on the Senate floor after Sanders announced 'changes' to his amendment."

(Story continues below)

To counter the Sanders Amendment, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., put forward another amendment restoring some of the original language of the more thorough audit.

The Senate, however, voted down the Vitter Amendment 37-62, while passing the Sanders Amendment.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed the maneuvering because of "pressure" from the Obama administration would allow the Federal Reserve "to sidestep legislation that would have exposed its interest-rate decision-making to congressional auditors."

"So when the bill comes back to the House, guess what? We don't have the audit bill provision in there," Paul explained. "So I was able to offer an amendment which was the 'recommit amendment' to send it back to committee and put back in the true audit."

The motion to recommit would have sent the bill back to committee to add in the Fed audit.

"An interesting thing happened here because we do have 320 co-sponsors of 1207 and it passed the committee rather easily and it was not challenged on the House floor in the first go-around," Paul said. "Here we were on the House floor with a chance to put it back in, and … individuals who were co-sponsors of the legislation voted against it."

He added, "This is the way this system works too often. People do flip-flop, and they do change. But it also reflects the fact that the Federal Reserve is a very powerful institution. They were able to influence these votes."

In an interview with the "The Alex Jones Show," Paul said, "It tells you about the hypocrisy of this whole place and how it works and how powerful the Fed is."

Almost all of the "flip-flopping" co-sponsors were Democrats. Three Republicans were counted as "not voting": Utah's Rep. Rob Bishop, Tennessee's Rep. Zach Wamp and Alaska's Rep. Don Young.

"Does that mean it's over and done with?" Paul asked. "Well, pretty much so, even though there's a slight possibility another type of legislation that deals with banking regulations may come up before the end of the year and we may get a chance to offer as a recommital motion if the leadership on the Republican side permits it. But, as for now, it looks like we will not have a full audit."

However, Paul said there is an advantage to the unsuccessful effort.

"Believe me, a lot of benefit has come from this," he said. "The Federal Reserve will not get off completely because more people in this country than ever before know that the Federal Reserve is very, very important. They know they were responsible for the problems that we have, and they know that they work in secrecy. The American people want to know about it."

The following U.S. representatives co-sponsored H.R.1207 but later flip-flopped, voting against the motion to recommit the full Fed audit to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009:

Switched to 'Nay' after co-sponsoring H.R.1207

Adler, John (D-N.J.)
Altmire, Jason (D-Pa.)
Arcuri, Michael (D-N.Y.)
Baird, Brian (D-Wash.)
Baldwin, Tammy (D-Wis.)
Barrow, John (D-Ga.)
Berkley, Shelley (D-Nev.)
Berry, Marion (D-Ark.)
Bishop, Sanford (D-Ga.)
Bishop, Timothy (D-N.Y.)
Boccieri, John (D-Ohio)
Boren, Dan (D-Okla.)
Boswell, Leonard L. (D-Iowa)
Boyd, Allen (D-Fla.)
Braley, Bruce (D-Iowa)
Bright, Bobby (D-Ala.)
Brown, Corrine (D-Fla.)
Chandler, Ben (D-Ky.)
Chu, Judy (D-Calif.)
Clay, William Lacy (D-Mo.)
Cohen, Steve (D-Tenn.)
Conyers, John (D-Mich.)
Courtney, Joe (D-Conn.)
Cuellar, Henry (D-Texas)
Dahlkemper, Kathleen (D-Pa.)
Davis, Danny (D-Ill.)
Davis, Lincoln (D-Tenn.)
DeFazio, Peter (D-Ore.)
Delahunt, Bill (D-Mass.)
Doggett, Lloyd (D-Texas)
Doyle, Michael (D-Pa.)
Driehaus, Steve (D-Ohio)
Edwards, Donna (D-Md.)
Farr, Sam (D-Calif.)
Filner, Bob (D-Calif.)
Fudge, Marcia (D-Ohio)
Gordon, Bart (D-Tn.)
Grijalva, Raul (D-Ariz.)
Halvorson, Deborah (D-Ill.)
Hare, Phil (D-Ill.)
Harman, Jane (D-Calif.)
Heinrich, Martin (D-N.M.)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (D-S.D.)
Higgins, Brian (D-N.Y.)
Hill, Baron (D-Ind.)
Hinchey, Maurice (D-N.Y.)
Hinojosa, Ruben (D-Texas)
Hirono, Mazie (D-Hawaii)
Holden, Tim (D-Pa.)
Inslee, Jay (D-Wash.)
Jackson, Jessie (D-Ill.)
Johnson, Henry (D-Ga.)
Johnson, Eddie Bernice (D-Texas)
Kagen, Steve (D-Wis.)
Kaptur, Marcy (D-Ohio)
Kildee, Dale (D-Mich.)
Kilpatrick, Carolyn (D-Mich.)
Kissell, Larry (D-N.C.)
Kosmas, Suzanne (D-Fla.)
Kucinich, Dennis (D-Ohio)
Langevin, James (D-R.I.)
Lewis, John (D-Ga.)
Loebsack, David (D-Iowa)
Lofgren, Zoe (D-Calif.)
Luján, Ben Ray (D-N.M.)
Maffei, Daniel (D-N.Y.)
McDermott, Jim (D-Wash.)
McGovern, James (D-Mass.)
Melancon, Charlie (D-La.)
Michaud, Michael (D-Maine)
Miller, Brad (D-N.C.)
Murphy, Christopher (D-Conn.)
Murphy, Scott (D-N.Y.)
Murphy, Patrick (D-Pa.)
Nadler, Jerrold (D-N.Y.)
Oberstar, James (DFL-Minn.)
Ortiz, Solomon (D-Texas)
Pascrell, Bill (D-N.J.)
Pastor, Ed (D-Ariz.)
Payne, Donald (D-N.J.)
Perlmutter, Ed (D-Colo.)
Peterson, Collin (D-Minn.)
Pingree, Chellie (D-Maine)
Polis, Jared (D-Colo.)
Quigley, Mike (D-Ill.)
Reyes, Silvestre (D-Texas)
Richardson, Laura (D-Calif.)
Rodriguez, Ciro (D-Texas)
Rothman, Steven (D-N.J.)
Ruppersberger, C.A. Dutch (D-Md.)
Ryan, Tim (D-Ohio)
Salazar, John T. (D-Colo.)
Sarbanes, John (D-Md.)
Schakowsky, Janice (D-Ill.)
Schauer, Mark (D-Mich.)
Schiff, Adam (D-Calif.)
Schrader, Kurt (D-Ore.)
Scott, David (D-Ga.)
Shea-Porter, Carol (D-N.H.)
Sherman, Brad (D-Calif.)
Shuler, Heath (D-N.C.)
Slaughter, Louise McIntosh (D-N.Y.)
Smith, Adam (D-Wash.)
Snyder, Vic (D-Ark.)
Speier, Jackie (D-Calif.)
Spratt, John (D-S.C.)
Stark, Fortney Pete (D-Calif.)
Sutton, Betty (D-Ohio)
Thompson, Bennie (D-Miss.)
Tierney, John (D-Mass.)
Tonko, Paul (D-N.Y.)
Visclosky, Peter (D-Ind.)
Walz, Timothy (DFL-Minn.)
Weiner, Anthony (D-N.Y.)
Welch, Peter (D-Vt.)
Wu, David (D-Ore.)
Yarmuth, John (D-Ky.)

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[NH4RonPaul]

Che-Porter ugh!