Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Why does Chris Dodd oppose good government?

During his Presidential campaign, Ron Paul said End the Fed! But we all know that didn't get very far. So earlier this year Congressman Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207. It's a bill commonly referred to as Audit the Fed!

Writing for OpenCongress.org, Donny Shaw explains that Audit the Fed:

is gaining co-sponsors quickly and could actually get a vote this session — the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009. The co-sponsor list, currently at 58, is strongly bipartisan. It includes progressive Democrats like Rep. Alan Grayson [D, FL-8] and Rep. Henry Waxman [D, CA-30], Blue Dogs like Rep. Gene Taylor [D, MS-4] and Rep. Collin Peterson [D, MN-7], and conservatives like Rep. Michele Bachmann [R, MN-6] and Rep. Scott Garrett [R, NJ-5].

And here's the critical ingredient that gives fangs to the auditors of The Beast that tried to kill Andrew Jackson:

Audits of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal reserve banks may not include – (1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization; (2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations; (3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or (4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)-(3) of this subsection.

Seems plain as day to me. Transparency is good. Ron Paul supports good government. If you oppose this bill, you oppose good government. But this is all on the House side. Chris Dodd is on the Senate side.

And now there's a bill (S.B. 604) that is a sister to Ron Paul's bill. I thank Bernie Sanders (Populist - VT) for demanding good government. I also thank his co-sponsors, Russ Feingold (Populist - WI) and Chuck Webb (Populist - VA). See Bernie here explaining that there is no legitimate reason to not support his bill:



Senator Sanders notes that Americans know what happened with the $700 billion of TARP money. But we have no idea what happened to the $10 trillion $2 trillion of Fed-printed bailout money.

Senator Sanders is right, but I take it one step further.

Failure to support this bill is tantamount to opposing good government.

Why have Senators Dodd (Political Class - CT) and Lieberman (Political Class - CT) not yet co-sponsored this bill?

Particularly when it comes to the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, I must conclude that Senator Dodd opposes good government. I mean, if he were serious about transparency, accountability and good government... he could've subpoenaed all of that by now. But he hasn't.

I guess this is what I should expect from a member of The Political Class.

Tim White

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chris "Countrywide" Dodd opposes good government and transparency? Say it ain't so!