White House Battles Against Financial Reform Bill Amendment To Audit Federal Reserve Board Funds

[Better Believe It]

Rahm Emanuel Battles Fed Audit
By Andy Kroll
May 4, 2010

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lead sponsor of a new rule to audit the Federal Reserve, is running up against some formidable opposition from nearly all sides. Most notably, Sanders told the Huffington Post that his provision, which has a good chance of winning 60 or more votes in the Senate, is opposed by the White House, and that chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has pushing back against the Fed audit. "I think momentum is with us," Sanders told HuffPo. "But I've gotta tell you, that on this amendment, you're taking on all of Wall Street, you're taking on the Fed, obviously, and unfortunately you seem to be taking on the White House, as well. And that's a tough group to beat."

The amendment would allow the Government Accountabililty Office (GAO) unprecedented access to the Fed's records, and would require the opaque, hybrid public-private institution to disclose who received the $2 trillion given out in loans by the Fed since the onset of the financial crisis. To one's surprise, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and his acolytes have vehemently opposed the provision, saying it would taint the Fed's decision-making with politics and partisanship.

Sanders, though, appears to have considerable support amongst his colleagues in the Senate. A similar provision to audit the Fed, the Sanders-Webb-Bunning-Feingold Amendment, won 59 votes in April 2009, and eight of the "No"s on that 2009 vote have signed onto Sanders' current amendment. And considering that the House passed a similar amendment last year, and that right now Sanders' amendment has the support of 69 senators, it looks as if the white-haired Vermont independent might get his Fed audit after all. The amendment could come up for a vote as early as today.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/05/rahm-emanuel-battles-fed-audit


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Socialist and arch-conservative senators team up against Obama and the banks on Fed audit
By Jonathan Strong - The Daily Caller
May 5, 2010

An unlikely alliance of liberals and conservatives led by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and firebrand conservative Sen. Jim Demint is gaining ground in an effort to audit the Federal Reserve, despite objections by the White House and bank lobbyists.

The provision is “absolutely certain” to get a vote on the Senate floor, Sanders said Tuesday. Sanders said Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing for his amendment to be subject to a 50-vote majority, rather than a 60-vote super-majority, but that Republicans haven’t agreed to that.

A stand-alone bill, like Sanders’s amendment to financial reform legislation, that would remove restrictions on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the Fed, has 32 cosponsors in addition to Sanders. Two-thirds are Republicans.

Obama has dispatched chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, originally a Bush appointee, to stop the amendment.

Sanders slammed the administration for opposing the amendment. “Good question!” he responded when asked how White House opposition to the amendment squares with Obama’s transparency pledges. Sanders said he and Emanuel haven’t spoken about the issue.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/05/socialist-and-an-arch-conservative-senators-team-up-against-obama-and-the-banks-on-fed-audit/





Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/05/socialist-and-an-arch-conservative-senators-team-up-against-obama-and-the-banks-on-fed-audit/#ixzz0n4z6jbol

[LakeSamish706]

1. So what does the White House fear about this audit? I think the public has a

right to know where the 2 Trillion (of our money) has gone to.

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. It infuriates me that they are trying to block this.

[The Northerner]

10. +1

[kentuck]

3. Here is my idea :

Break up the FED and take all its assets, which nobody knows and nobody will tell, and distribute their assets proportionally to all the community banks in the nation, according to their defined sizes.

The local banks could lend that money out to any entrepreneur with a worthwhile idea. This would be one of the best stimulus plans ever devised.

[LakeSamish706]

4. Thats an after thought, but at this point the American people have a right

to know what has gone on within the fed that they have spent (wasted) 2 Trillion dollars on. Have there been crimes committed that should be dealt with?

So once again, why is the White House and the Fed. so worried about being Audited?

[TheKentuckian]

5. The White House loves them some TARP fallacy

If Congress goes mucking around then we'll know that the TARP program can no longer be conflated with the real bail out and will more generally be understood to be the tippy top of the iceberg.

People are generally pissed about the little 700 billion but if they have to internalize the full scope their heads will explode and the game will be over.

[change_notfinetuning]

6. Sad. Pathetic. Words are not sufficient to express my disgust with Obama. n/t

[jtrockville]

7. So... Bernanke thinks the GAO is partisan?

Accountability is partisan?
Really?

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. ZeroHedge attempts to explain what may be motivating the whitehouse:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/when-will-tim-geithner-who-has-biggest-conflict-interest-recuse-himself-fed-audit-deliberati

Note last paragraph.

[ima_sinnic]

9. does Obama have any principles AT ALL?

I'll be writing in Howard Dean or Dennis Kucinich in 2012, unless somebody very progressive runs against him. Let the chips fall where they may--D, R--what difference does it make anymore?