By When Republicans lost power of Congress in 2006, conventional wisdom holds that it was because they had lost their way; that they were unwilling or unable to hold the government accountable they promised to reform in 1994.
Now, with a government that is completely unaccountable—responsible for more than $12.8 trillion of financial “rescues” in the past 22 months all on the taxpayers’ tab—the need for a political party in Washington to find what, if anything, is left in the public treasury has never been more dire.
Most of the financial bailouts have been conducted by the Federal Reserve, and on February 26th, Congressman Ron Paul introduced the legislation that would require an audit of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve Banks. Recent efforts at providing a clear insight—and oversight—have met with a stiff arm and stone wall. And there’s a reason why.
It meets in secret. Its ledger is secret. The member banks’ operations are a secret. Nonetheless, it wields vastly inordinate power over the nation’s monetary policy. It alone can fix interest rates. And now its role has recently dramatically expanded as the Fed directly purchases mortgage securities, treasuries, and other bonds, as noted yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. These actions all without the consent of the people’s representatives in Congress.
The “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009,” HR 1207 is necessary to ensure that American taxpayers finally have a full accounting of the Fed’s unaccountable, secret ledger that records trillions of federal dollars that have been kicked out the nation’s back door.
So far, the Act has a remarkable 179 cosponsors, including, significantly enough, 33 Democrats and 146 Republicans. The truth is, it should have more, and in the least every single Republican in the House should agree with keeping consistent and public oversight to the world’s most important central bank that is authorized by the people’s representatives in Congress to exist—currently without anything even remotely resembling adequate oversight.
If all House Republicans were on board, there would be 210 cosponsors on HR 1207, and 211 all together supporting the bill (counting its sponsor, Dr. Paul). They’d be a mere 7 cosponsors away from a discharge petition that would force the legislation to come to the floor.
Here follows the list of 31 Republicans not yet on board:
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John Boehner (OH-8)
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