Tag Archives: bernie-sanders

Ron Paul will not head up the House’s monetary policy subcommittee if John Boehner has anything to say about it. “Five GOP leadership aides, speaking anonymously because a decision isn’t final, say incoming House Speaker John Boehner has discussed ways to prevent Paul from becoming chairman or to keep him on a tight leash if he does,” reports Bloomberg. “If Boehner, who will help determine who gets to chair subcommittees as early as Dec. 8, rejects Paul, he may have to contend with thousands of grassroots supporters and dozens of younger lawmakers who see Paul as a hero.” Boehner and the establishment Republicans rode to victory last month on the shoulders of the Tea Party movement. Prior to the election, Tea Party activists in Maine, Colorado, and Utah focused on abolishing the Federal Reserve. Some predicted that if Republicans were to sweep the House they would become much more confrontational with the Federal Reserve. “The popularity of Tea Party candidates in U.S. elections could spell renewed efforts to curtail the power and independence of the Federal Reserve, which has been cast as an emblem of big government overreach,” Reuters reported in late October. Many establishment Republicans agree with senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who insists the Tea Party and its vision of less government has no long-term vision or prospects for political viability. Instead of dismantling the Federal Reserve, establishment Republicans have called for reforming the private bankster cartel masquerading as a government agency supposedly answerable to the American people. On Tuesday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. called for Congress to change the Fed’s “dual mandate” now requiring it to promote both price stability and full employment and instead focus on keeping inflation low and not worrying about reducing unemployment. “It is time that we work to clarify the mandate of the Federal Reserve,” said Corker, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, in a statement announcing his support for the change. “Providing our central bank with a clear and explicit focus on keeping inflation low will serve America better than the broader mandate approach we have today,” the National Journalreports. Corker and Pence proffered their milquetoast bill after it was revealed the Fed gave a big chunk of its multi-trillion dollar Wall Street bailout to foreign banksters and transnational corporations. “We now know that the Fed loaned trillions of dollars at zero or near-zero interest rates not only to the largest financial institutions in the country, but also to many of our largest corporations — including GE, McDonalds and Verizon,” said an outraged Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont. “Perhaps most surprising is the huge sum that went to bail out foreign private banks and corporations, including two European megabanks — Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse,” he said. “As a result of this disclosure, other members of Congress and I will be taking a very extensive look at all aspects of how the Federal Reserve functions.” Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul may take a serious look at the Fed. But we shouldn’t expect the rest of Congress to support an effort to cut out the cancer that plagues the economy. In July, Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act that would have eliminated restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed and open its operations to congressional oversight was defeated. “Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight, while Congress has kept its hands off and its eyes closed,” Ron Paul wrote after language from his bill failed to make it into a conference report on the so-called financial reform bill (that ultimately gave the Fed more power, not less). “The Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve System.” Now that Republicans are in charge of the House, they join the Democrats and make sure the Federal Reserve continues to operate in the shadows and remains unanswerable to the American people. http://kommoncents.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-does-boehner-not-want-ron-paul-as.ht… added by: Dagum