House passes Ron Paul’s ‘audit the Fed’ bill

The Washington Times ^ | 7/25/2012 | Stephen Dinan

[Beave Meister]

In a move that serves as a capstone to Rep. Ron Paul

[rb22982]

The Fed has proven they are nothing but a shill for a corrupt financial system and the banking powers. They either need to be eliminated or reformed, including some very heavy auditing and process changes. The LIBOR scandal alone should probably cause it to get an 86. Frankly, whether it benefits Soros or not is irrelevant. We need to re-institute all of the great depression rules and break up the big banks. You can’t have confidence in the banks because they have off balance sheet junk on their books (as does the fed res), not because of Soros.

[philman_36]

Thanks for the update and for your efforts Sal.

...at least there are people in DC who know and understand and are concerned.
It's those in DC who know and aren't concerned.

[Sirius Lee]

What Paul want's to do, is audit the FED's decision making process. Basically he wants the FED to have to account to Congress on a continual basis on how they arrive at every decision they make.

The Fed shouldn't even exist. Congress made a mistake in ceding the power to a bunch of filthy banksters who were buggering each other at Jeckyll Island. The least it can do is provide some oversight regarding a bunch of private banks to whom every last man, woman and child in this nation is hypothecated.

As a matter of fact, f*ck the Federal Reserve. I want my 16 Trillion with a "T" dollars back.

[P.O.E.]

Those are just for the Federal Reserve. There are hundreds of bureaus, departments, etc. There’s billions in Medicare, Welfare & Social Security fraud.

[uncommonsense]

I agree with other FReepers here that the Fed should not exist. It has zero accountability to the citizens of the USA. Congress is corrupt and broken, but at least we have the authority to fix it. We don't with the Fed.

There are too many issues with the Fed as it exists today that time and energy doesn't permit me to adress, but it's way past time to restore accountability for managing and minting US currency to return to the America people versus an international cabal of cronies and statists.

[mandaladon]

He’s so crooked he’ll have to be corkscrewed into his grave.................Love it!!!

[Raycpa]

The Board is required by the Federal Reserve Act (the Act) to report its operations to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Act also requires the Board, each year, to order a financial audit of each Federal Reserve Bank and to publish each week a statement of the financial condition of each such Federal Reserve Bank and a consolidated statement for all of the Federal Reserve Banks. Accordingly, the Board believes that the best financial disclosure consistent with law is achieved by issuing separate financial statements for the Board and for the Federal Reserve Banks. Therefore, the accompanying financial statements include only the results of operations and activities of the Board. Combined financial statements for the Federal Reserve Banks are included in the Board's annual report to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

[Raycpa]

As described in Note 4 to the Combined Financial Statements, these Combined Financial Statements were prepared in conformity with accounting principles established by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, as set forth in the Financial Accounting Manual for Federal Reserve Banks, which is a comprehensive basis of accounting other than accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

[dragnet2]

The FED is already audited.

[EBH]

Congress should ALSO focus on their decision making process

Voters should focus on their decision making process....

[Amish with an attitude]

Like a few of Ron Paul’s ideas, it sounds good on the surface.

I stopped taking him seriously when he began pushing the legalization of illicit drugs.

[Theoria]

The audit as of now leaves out several things:

Fed’s monetary policy actions or decisions, including discount window lending (direct loans to financial institutions), open-market operations and any other transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee. It also can’t look into the Fed’s transactions with foreign governments, foreign central banks and other international financing organizations.

You always leave that part out.

[free_life]

“The FED is already audited” where you been the last 4 yrs. We are still waiting for answers on where “our” money (debt) went.

Reid, Pelosi and Barney and you all agree the FED is beyond accountability, great thinkers!

[DannyTN]

"I want my 16 Trillion with a "T" dollars back."

You got your 16 Trillion back to the penny. There was never 16 Trillion outstanding in the first place. That was a sensationalized number. What they did was they took overnight loans (Loans that have to be paid back the next day) that averaged a few billion a day over a 3 year period. And they added them all up to get the 16 Trillion number.

All the loans that made up the 16 Trillion were paid back the next day. Every single one of them.

And these loans are made to banks with their Bank Reserves as collateral.

You are being played.

Only the auto maker loans weren't repaid. They were transferred to another government loan.

[DannyTN]

Only the GSA is prevented by law from auditing those transactions.

The independent auditors Deloitte and Touche can and apparently do. The FED's internal auditors can also.

[DennisR]

I think the previous poster is referring to the national debt, which is, indeed, about 16 trillion.

[DannyTN]

"I think the previous poster is referring to the national debt, which is, indeed, about 16 trillion."

Okay, but that's not the FED's fault, that's Congress. Congress could borrow money before there was a FED. They could borrow money on a gold standard.

That's part of my problem with Ron Paul, he is distracting people from the real issue which is Congress.

[D-fendr]

Thanks for your posts.

The last thing we want is a more politicized Fed.

[DannyTN]

Thanks for the encouragement. I feel like I’m banking my head against a wall.

[sushiman]

The existance of the federal reserve is the biggest problemin America they need to be abolished altogether and our government needs to distribute currency directly and interest free the way JFK was starting to do. The fed have looted the American taxpayer for trillions of dollars. Basically the IRS is an arm of the fed and all tax revenue they collect gets paid directly to the fed then the fed loans our government our money and charges 7 percent interest and all the tax revenue collected is not even covering the interest we owe let alone the principal, then they keep loaning us more of our own money and the debt keeps getting bigger this is the biggest phoney loan shark deal in the history of the world .