Quote of the Day: “We are in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper, representing not gold nor silver; no sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors and a ruined people.” — Daniel Webster (1782-1852), US Senator Source: speech in the Senate, 1833
Since last September the Federal Reserve has made $9 trillion in transactions that are not reflected on its balance sheet. This compares to $2 trillion in transactions that is reflected on the Fed’s balance sheet.
Likewise, neither Congress nor the Inspector General knows anything about the profits or losses the Fed may have experienced from the $2 trillion that is reported on its balance sheet.
Add up the numbers — the Fed has done things in your name with $11 trillion. This is only a few trillion shy of the total annual gross domestic product of the United States. It’s also several times the total annual spending of the federal government.
Would it be an exaggeration to say that the Federal Reserve has become a shadow government, several times the size of the entity that’s supposed to be our real government? If we can judge by the resources involved then we would have to answer yes. The Federal Reserve seems to be disposing of more of your wealth than even your cancerous elected government does.
But apparently, neither you nor the people you elected is even allowed to know what the Fed is doing, let alone exert any control over it. This is a strong argument in favor of Congressman Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Fed — the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (HR 1207).
There’s good news in this regard. HR 1207 now has 200-cosponsors, which is 46% of the entire House of Representatives.
That pill is his bill to audit the Federal Reserve, HR1207. Yesterday on Freedom Watch he revealed that the bill now has 209 cosponsors and just 9 more are needed to attain a House majority. What was more interesting though were his own feelings regarding HR1207′s chances in the Senate and beyond.
While focusing on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of an audit by a government organization for a quasi-government entity like the Fed I missed the hidden benefits of such a bill getting this kind of support.
First, having a bill like this attain 209 cosponsors is a victory in itself. As Paul points out during his Freedom Watch segment he believes it is due to the support and activism among the people that have pushed so many lawmakers to cosponsor the legislation.
This means that it is now a positive move politically to support an audit of the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul’s next book, “End the Fed (preorder it)“, could not be arriving in bookstores at a better time. It is due to be released in September of 2009.
HR 1207, Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act is up to 207 co-sponsor, close to a majority. So… what to do next?
by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution Originally published Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6522.html
This February, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 to audit the FED. When I first reported on it in March, privately I was quite ecstatic that there were 11 co-sponsors, and three were Democrats. Why?
Well, Dr. Paul has tried for some time to audit and limit, even abolish, the Federal Reserve. The hallmarks of Dr. Paul’s twenty years in Congress are common sense bills that have been mostly ignored as our past Congresses and the Federal Reserve led us down the path to economic ruin. However, what happened next in the House is amazing – HR 1207 now has 207 co-sponsors, close to a majority!
The big picture is that it only takes half a brain and a pulse to get angry about the fact that the central bankers gave the American people the equivalent of a middle finger on Bloomberg’s Freedom of Information Act request. The FED denied to disclose how they used $2 trillion dollars in open market operations that they executed outside of Congressional authority. Congress has no clue or control over how the FED used the money since that is not how the FED works. Without an audit, Congress does not even know how much gold our nation owns. Who wants to be on the “No” side with all of the popular sentiment against it? (photo)
The legislative process in Washington is usually as slow as molasses, and most bills die in committee with the obvious exceptions of very long lobbyist bills like the USA PATRIOT Act and urgent banker bailout-stimulus plans that no one in Congress even has time to read before voting on them and are passed in a blind panic. In fact, I personally am insulted by this video of the infamous speedreader incident of this 900-page “Cap and Trade” lobbyist amendment from May. Ron Paul is a veteran legislator, and most of his bills this decade are quite short – HR 1207 is only 446 words.
Peter Schiff hit it out of the park on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show a few minutes ago. He was billed as one of those that got it right on the economy and received cheers for it.
He spoke the hard truths to an audience who seemed glued to his every word.
What he didn’t do was announce anything different regarding running against Dodd. He still says he is “considering it”. Many of us hope that the exploratory committee in Peter Schiff’s mind arrives at a conclusion soon.
According to Matt Hawes at the Campaign For Liberty Ron Paul’s HR1207 to audit the Federal Reserve now has 207 cosponsors, including House Minority leader John Boehner!
One has to believe at this point that HR1207, in some form, will be passed by the House of Representatives. This is one bipartisan regulatory bill we can fully get behind.
I have serious reservations about the efficacy of HR1207, but as I’ve stated in the past it is a good start down the road of transparency that we truly need. We can only hope that such transparency, if passed, forces the Federal Reserve into a position of making very careful choices about how it conducts its business.
Earlier in the day, we reported that HR 1207 is now up to 200 cosponsors.
I’d like to correct that… by changing it to 207!!!
Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)**
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO)*
Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY)*
Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)
* House Financial Services Committee Member
** Minority Leader, House of Representatives (Yes, you read that right!)
This means that just 10 more cosponsors are needed to attain a House majority. Our tracking page should be updated as soon as thomas.loc.gov updates the official count.
Quote of the Day: “I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace. That two become a law firm; and that three or more become a congress!” — John Adams in “1776″ by Sherman Edwards & Peter Stone
Henry Waxman hired a speed-reader in case Republicans demanded that the cap & trade bill be read to the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Republicans decided not to deploy this “stalling” tactic, so the reader was used only for a couple of minutes, as a joke.
Not only are bills never read before a quorum in Congress, they aren’t read in committee either. Our supposed representatives think it’s a joke to believe they should know what they’re inflicting on us. But we don’t think it’s funny…
* The cap & trade bill, H.R. 2454, will remake the entire U.S. economy
* The bill is an astounding 932 pages long
But the politicians don’t think it’s worth reading. In fact, Chairman Waxman introduced the bill on May 15th with the intention moving it out of committee in just one week! It took longer than that, but most of the committee’s time was spent defeating Republican amendments – which were also unread.
This bill is so large and convoluted that the normally-reliable Library of Congress still hasn’t been able to post a summary of it on their legislative website. It’s been three weeks since the bill was introduced and apparently no one understands it well enough to summarize it.
Without DownsizeDC.org’s Read the Bills Act (RTBA), Congress has every incentive to make bills as long and convoluted as possible. This allows them to combine reasonable-sounding proposals with special-interest favors. And then, when the bill doesn’t work as intended, their solution is always to pass yet another long, convoluted bill.
But under RTBA…
Congress will have an incentive to make bills as short and clear as possible
Fewer bills will get passed, meaning government won’t grow at such a cancerous rate
The final version of every bill will be posted on the Internet for at least seven days before a vote, giving the public and the media a chance to read and comment
Some current and former Ron Paul supporters are angry at the man (or at least disappointed) that he himself didn’t take his Presidential campaign as seriously as many would have liked from the start. He treated it as an education effort until he started getting loads of donations and by then it was almost too late to get serious about winning. However, the midterm elections of 2010 may show that his educational effort was quite fruitful in its own right.
There are at least 5 candidates running (or seriously considering running) for public office in 2010 due to the influence and inspiration of Ron Paul and his Presidential campaign. They are the next generation. Barry Goldwater begat Ronald Reagan. Whom will emerge from the foundation Ron Paul has built? Perhaps one of the following current or potential candidates for office:
Much of what our federal government is doing right now is not just illegal and unconstitutional, it’s also just plain stupid. How about using some “Common Sense”?
by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution Originally published on Monday, June 8, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6514.html
This short piece will describe “50 Laboratories” model using the current debate over federal nationalization of our health care as a practical example. However, I want to stress that this argument can be applied to most other topics of national concern, such as energy, the economy, retirement and even hot-button topics like same-sex marriage and abortion.
As the self-styled “Champion of the Constitution,” readers of this column are very familiar with my application of the Constitution to current events and issues. I confess that an affection for the Tenth Amendment from the Constitution’s Bill of Rights runs very strong in my blood. I even believe it should be repeated several more times in the Constitution so that posterity will never neglect it.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
However, let us assume for the purpose of this article that this argument is null and void. In fact, our federal Legislative, Judicial and Executive have behaved for the past decade as if this is the case, so whatever your personal views are, oath or no oath, this is a fair assumption to make.
Conversely, let us also hypothetically assume the argument that all 50 States do not have Sovereignty over their own States is also null and void, though this is fairly ridiculous. Perhaps when the day arrives where Rhode Island and Connecticut decide to merge into the state of Rhodnecticut, or North Carolina and South Carolina combine into Carolina, we can review this once more.
In a parallel universe, public servants would compete to serve the public best.
Today the union leader for the Rochester Private Fire Company ‘won’ a decision by a State judge that ceases the Company’s participation in Rochester City “Cool Sweeps”. In the past, the professional and volunteer firefighters of RPFC would give back to their customers and achieve inexpensive advertising to attract new customers by opening fire hydrants on hot and sticky summer days.
These events were naturally quite popular among children and made them admire the firefighters as role models. Some even showed signs of wanting to become firefighters when they grew up. It’s just another way the RPFC brought value to their community and improved the health of young Rochesterians in the face of dangerous weather.
Last week Judge Jean Doerr ruled that “such tasks represent duties ‘not inherent in the duties of firefighters,’ and therefore constitute an unfair work practice.” Unfair to whom? We’re not quite sure. Chief Firefighter and CEO of RPFC John Caufield said that he is “disgusted” with this decision and believes this ruling to be a public relations disaster.
Caufield told our reporter, “We loved [participating in] the Cool Sweeps. It’s great to be out there in the community. Firefighters have always done more than just fight fires. Pick up any children’s book and you’ll see depictions of us rescuing cats, helping children cross the street and volunteering for Senior Citizens. We don’t find these tasks to be demeaning and we certainly don’t find them to be outside of our duties. In fact, most of us became firefighters to help in any way we could.” Caufield is worried about how the competition might react and has vowed to appeal the decision.
The competition is reacting quickly to the news. The steering committee for West Brighton Fire Service Organization (WBFSO) announced today that they will be opening two new stations on the edge of the city to provide service to residents on the edge of the city. According to a press release WBFSO will be delighted to continue Cool Sweep operations for Rochester residents and will match existing rates in their new service areas.
Other competing fire companies are interested in expanding their coverage as well. The Gates Fire Corporation has announced plans to fast-track construction on a new station in the City. Their CEO announced “We recognize the huge misstep the RPFC has made here and we are reaffirming our commitment to our current customers to put their interests first.”
Although Cool Sweeps are on hold for now, Rochester is not expecting sweltering weather until next month, giving businesses, neighborhood associations and fire companies a window of opportunity to find solutions.
Liberty Maven
“, could not be arriving in bookstores at a better time. It is due to be released in September of 2009.
This February, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced 
Loading ...
