–=–
Note to readers… Many will turn away from the following facts before finishing this research project simply because it creates in oneself a sense of cognitive dissonance – the emotional feeling and knowing that ones beliefs are misguided, and yet believing in them anyway, no matter how undeniably overwhelming the opposing facts are to ones set of beliefs. This tool (the theory of cognitive dissonance) is paramount in the struggle to keep the people under control through advertising, entertainment, media, corporate religions, and political happenstance so that the average and even above-average person is continuously and hopelessly bound… not by facts but by belief in anti-fact. I would only ask that, as in any good scientific experiment, you consider the following well-documented evidence even if it goes against your beliefs, as one must consider all positive and negative variables in any equation before the truth can ever become clear. I promise that by the end of this article, you will have indisputable proof of corruption and subterfuge proving the Audit The Fed bill to be a fraud, and will better understand the Federal Reserve System and its actual power and authority. Consider this a challenge! And please do not do me the disservice of leaving a negative comment unless you inversely do me the service of reading this entire presentation with a truly open heart. Thank you… –Clint-
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The Incontrovertible Conundrum Of Dr. Ron Paul
–=–
I want to re-visit the so-called Audit The Fed bill sponsored by Ron Paul, with versions in both the house and the senate this year, as well as the indelible Ron Paul phenomenon itself. To do this, we must delve deep into the language of both the house bill and the US CODE for which that bill will effect, as well as attempting to dispel some fallacies about the Federal Reserve System and its perceived power structure. If you support Ron Paul, you owe it to yourself and your fellow well-intentioned compatriots to read this entire presentation – no matter how badly it stings – and to make sure that others like yourself receive this information. Misinformation abounds, and faith alone in our perceptions is a poisonous and even deadly weakness. For blind faith is destroying our people. Consider the following collection of information a public service designed to break our collective spell of inaction due to our misguided faith in party-politics and false-change/hope. Hope is the great in-activator; powerful enough to stop millions of gun owners from acting upon the very reason of treason that they claim for this right to bear arms.
Study materials for this adventure can be found at the following links:
US CODE> TITLE 31> SECTION 14 – http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/714
Full text of HR459 – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr459/text
–=–
Dear Patriots
–=–
Firstly, in a recent letter/email to his constituents, Ron Paul had the following to say:
After nearly 30 years of fighting for liberty in Washington, my time in Congress is rapidly coming to an end. But what a way to go out! I am so pleased to tell you about what could be the crowning achievement of my legislative efforts – passing our Audit the Fed bill!
I know a lot has been asked of you this year, but I’m writing today to make sure you understand that in the coming days, my biggest priority will be passing my Audit the Fed bill through Congress.
The good news is, the House leadership has promised a vote on Audit the Fed this July, so I must ask EVERY SINGLE PATRIOT to help Campaign for Liberty in this vital effort today.
You can help me make history – and help change the course of the country – by passing Audit the Fed through Congress.
–=–
Let’s break this down, so that we can better understand this typical “Campaign For Liberty” hope-propaganda as it pertains to these Federal Reserve Transparency bills being promoted here.
Dr. Paul states that he has been “fighting for liberty in Washington” for nearly 30 years, and that the “crowning achievement” to his political career will be the passing of the “Audit The Fed bill”.
It is important to note that for the 12 terms that Ron Paul has been in Congress, this man has achieved the almost unheard of feat of passing not one national bill/law as a sponsor in these 24 years of “fighting for liberty in Washington“. In other words, for the last 24 years, Ron Paul has been nothing but talk! He has placated the very people who would otherwise be carrying pitchforks and guns to their legislator’s offices by giving them exactly what they needed: hope. Ron Paul has served as the great white hope of patriots everywhere. And this ability to control the heartbeat of the resistance with nothing but broken promises along side complete inaction with empty words and catch-phrases has created a whole generation of deer in headlights – while the most dire of tyranny and injustice is taking place in full sight of Paul’s hopeful and faithful supporters.
Well… To be fair, one of Paul’s congressional bills did pass. It was entitled:
A Bill:
“To authorize the Administrator of General Services to convey a parcel of real property in Galveston, Texas, to the Galveston Historical Foundation.”
The Washington Post described the passing of this bill like this:
The passage of H.R. 2121 (above), in fall 2009, unfolded without drama. It allowed for the sale of a customhouse in Galveston, Tex. The House debate took two minutes, and the vote took eight seconds. The ayes had it.
But something historic was happening. On his 482nd try, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) had authored a bill that would become law.
Paul has become a surprising force in the Republican presidential race, promising to use “the bully pulpit of the presidency” to demand deep cutbacks across government. But Paul has had only limited success using his current pulpit — a seat in Congress — to rally lawmakers behind his ideas.
Of the 620 measures that Paul has sponsored, just four have made it to a vote on the House floor. Only that one has been signed into law.
So Ron Paul’s ONE success story as a Congressman is that he got some federal land conveyed to a historical society in his home district of Galvesten, Texas, at fair market value. Holy hand grenade Batman… that’s liberty in Washington alright!
In other words, besides subduing the masses of otherwise hopeless people with inspirational and patriotic speaches, Ron Paul’s “crowning achievement” will literally be his only tangible or physical achievement with regards to his national congressional political career in Washington. To break it down even further… if actions do indeed speak louder than words, then Ron Paul is the deaf-mute of congress!
–=–
The Old Bait And Switch:
Ron Paul’s Addiction To Earmarks
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But it is not enough to stop there… For Congressman Paul has a wonderfully deceitful and unethical trick that he uses to benefit his congressional district in Texas – from within the very bills that he publicly admonishes and votes against:
“U.S. Rep. Ron was one of only four House Republicans to break rank from the party and request earmarks despite a Republican Conference earmark moratorium. Paul sent 41 earmark requests totaling $157,093,544 for the 2011 Fiscal Year. His largest single request was $19,500,000 for a naval training ship at the Texas Maritime Academy in Galveston, followed by $18,126,000 to provide maintenance on the Matagorda Ship Channel.”
“For Fiscal Year 2010, Paul requested 54 total earmarks, adding up to $398,460,640 in pork that the former presidential candidate sought to bring home to his district. These requests were made prior to the House Republican Conference’s voluntary ban on filing earmarks.
“Paul’s largest request in 2010 was $51.5 million in federal money to be spent on “Reconstruction of Bluewater Highway Hurricane Evacuation Route Between Brazoria and Galveston Counties in Texas.” He requested another $50 million to be directed to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and $46 million for deepening the Texas City channel. The majority of Paul’s requests were for projects related to various ports and channels, though other sectors of his district also received attention, such as $20 million for a hospital in Chambers County. Even smaller projects received attention from the libertarian representative, such as $2.5 million requested “to redevelop historic downtown area and to purchase trash cans, bike racks and decorative street lighting” in Baytown.
“While Paul requested these earmarks, he can still claim to have voted against the spending. Here’s how he defended his earmarking habit when he was challenged during a Fox News interview in 2009:
‘I think you’re missing the whole point. I have never voted for an earmark. I voted against all appropriation bills. So, this whole thing about earmarks is totally misunderstood.’
‘Earmarks is the responsibility of the Congress. We should earmark even more. We should earmark every penny. So, that’s the principle that we have to follow and the — and the responsibility of the Congress. The whole idea that you vote against an earmark, you don’t save a penny. That just goes to the administration and they get to allocate the funds.’
(Author’s note: That’s national [Federal] taxpayer money we are talking about here. This earmark appropriation comes out of your pocket eventually. That means you in California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. You too, Guam! You all pay for improvements and funding for Galveston, Texas. And in general, earmarks have absolutely nothing to do with the bills being passed.)
Continued…
Of the five U.S. House members who brought home more total earmarked money than Paul, three were defeated in the November elections — Democratic U.S. Reps. Chet Edwards, Solomon Ortiz and Ciro Rodriguez (who all have large military installations in or near their districts.)
“Mother Jones” also reported the following:
“Even as the 12-term congressman has become the Cassandra of governmental overreach, he has enabled a deepening dependence on the federal government at home. Paul, who last week announced that he will retire at the end of 2012, will on one hand be remembered as “Dr. No,” the politician who always voted “nay” on new spending, and on the other, as “a politician like all the rest,” as Galveston GOP precinct chair Josh Daniels described him to me last week, noting that Paul’s Janus-faced approach to federal spending “just doesn’t sit well with me”.
For better or worse, Paul has always cauterized his anti-government views with old-fashioned cronyism. Knowing that most appropriations bills will pass despite his nay vote, he often loads them with earmarks. In this way, he has managed to please both small-government conservatives and pork-loving constituents.”
(Source: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/ron-paul-texas-federal-spending-pork)
I can virtually hear the various excuses and attempts at justification for Dr. Paul’s actions mixed with the familiar ring of cognitive dissonance even as I write this. But the simple truth is that this habitual addiction to voting no on the majority of congressional bills in order to attain and maintain a good voting record that will appease your supporters, while adding and benefiting from your own earmarks placed into those very same bills, while keeping up the appearance that your public voting record against bad legislation is pure…
In this author’s opinion, this is the ultimate in deceit and manipulation.
–=–
Liberty In Washington
Huh?
–=–
It is also important to say here that “fighting for liberty in Washington” is not the same as fighting for liberty in Texas (or America). In fact it is quite safe to say that Ron Paul has made his Texas district more dependent on Federal Government handouts and earmarks than most other congressmen – and that in the end equates to anti-liberty.
Remember, Washington D.C. is a district; not a state. It is a corporation acting as a government. It is not part of the land of America – not one of the 50 states united – and it can not and will not ever have liberty. A corporation is by definition not free and will never be liberated – unless it is unincorporated.
Ron Paul is nothing more than one of millions of employees of that corporation, keeping the Holy Grail secret of the audited Federal Reserve Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) safe from the people’s collective knowledge, right in line with the rest.
The men and women of congress (Senate and the House) are not free and independent, altruistic representatives of the people as we are continuously led to believe, but are actually TITLE 2 & TITLE 5 “employees” of the Federal Government. They get hired as employees after being voted in by voting machines (Diebold is just another government stock investment held corporation).
Let’s look at what the Federal law itself states about this:
USC – TITLE 5 – GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYEES
TITLE 5 > PART III > Subpart F > CHAPTER 73 > SUBCHAPTER IV > § 7342
§ 7342. Receipt and disposition of foreign gifts and decorations
(a) For the purpose of this section—
(1) “employee” means—
(E) the President and the Vice President;
(F) a Member of Congress as defined by section 2106 of this title (except the Vice President) and any Delegate to the Congress; and
(G) the spouse of an individual described in subparagraphs (A) through (F) -or a dependent
(2) “foreign government” means—
(A) any unit of foreign governmental authority, including any foreign national, State, local, and municipal government;
(that’s you, America! The United States is a foreign corporation!!!)
(6) “employing agency” (employer) means—
(A) the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the House of Representatives, for Members and employees of the House of Representatives, except that those responsibilities specified in subsections (note that a “Member” is a “congressman”, including Ron Paul!)
(B) the Select Committee on Ethics of the Senate, for Senators and employees of the Senate, except that those responsibilities
(C) the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, for judges and judicial branch employees; (all judges) and
(D) the department, agency, office, or other entity in which an employee is employed, for other legislative branch employees and for all executive branch employees (and that includes the President, who is an “employee”).
TITLE 5 § 2105 – Employee
(a) For the purpose of this title, “employee”, except as otherwise provided by this section or when specifically modified, means an officer and an individual who is—
(1) appointed in the civil service by one of the following acting in an official capacity—
(A) the President;
(B) a Member or Members of Congress, or the Congress;
(C) a member of a uniformed service;
(D) an individual who is an employee under this section;
(E) the head of a Government controlled corporation…
TITLE 5 › Part III › Subpart A › Chapter 21 › § 2106
§ 2106 – MEMBER OF CONGRESS
For the purpose of this title, “Member of Congress” means the Vice President, a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives, a Delegate to the House of Representatives, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.
Also read – TITLE 2: THE CONGRESS (Link: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2)
So how is Congress listed when we search for it as a corporation?
From Manta.com:
Congress, United States
About Congress, United States
Phone: (202) 225-0100
Business Categories:
Executive Offices, National in Washington, DC
Executive Office
Executive Offices
Congress, United States in Washington, DC is a private company categorized under Executive Offices, National. Our records show it was established in and incorporated in District of Columbia.
Products or Services: Federal Government Services, Government Relocation.
Congress, United States also does business as Congress .
–==–
What about Ron Paul himself. Surely he is a real person, right?
Manta.com states:
Representative Ron Paul
About Representative Ron Paul
Phone: (979) 285-0231
Legislative Bodies
Representative Ron Paul in Lake Jackson, TX is a private company categorized under Federal Government-Executive Offices. Our records show it was established in and incorporated in Texas.
Representative Ron Paul also does business as Congress, United States.
–=–
Congressional Districts?
–=–
What is a congressional district?
It is a Federal District, of course. Congress is part of the main headquartered-in-Washington D.C. United States corporation, and congressmen are employees of the US Federal Government.
Where do Washington D.C’s federal “Capital Police” have jurisdiction and authority?
Only on “US corporation” land: i.e. Washington D.C. – but not anywhere in the individual 50 states united:
What do they do?
Protect the corporation, it’s land, and its “employees”.
(Link: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/1967)
–=–
Has The Federal Reserve Ever Been Audited?
–=–
Perhaps the greatest deceit- be it purposeful or accidental- that Ron Paul and his Campaign For Liberty have imposed upon their followers is the promotion of the Federal Reserve as a separate and out of control independent entity that is somehow outside of the U.S. Government’s legal jurisdiction, and that it is not required to audit it’s financial statements…
Let’s dispel this propaganda right here and now!
Please, please read the following history of the audits of the Federal Reserve, reprinted here:
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A Brief History of Federal Reserve Audits
Since its inception in 1913 the Federal Reserve System has been subjected to a variety of financial and performance audits by Congress, the executive branch, and private accounting firms, although responsibility for this task has shifted from time to time. From 1913 to 1921 the Board of Governors, then known as the Federal Reserve Board which sets monetary policy and regulates the activities of the Federal Reserve Banks, was audited annually by the U.S. Treasury Department. In 1921 Congress created the Government Accounting Office (GAO) and assigned it to audit the Board until 1933. In the Banking Act of 1933, Congress voted specifically to remove the Board from the GAO’s jurisdiction. From 1933 to 1952 audit teams from the twelve Federal Reserve Banks performed the annual examination of the BOG’s books. From 1952 to 1978, the Board, under authorization from Congress, decided to employ nationally recognized accounting firms to conduct the audits of itself to insure independent oversight. This provided an external evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of the examination procedures.
In 1978 Congress passed the Federal Banking Agency Audit Act (31 USCA §714). It placed the Federal Reserve System back under the auditing authority of the GAO. The Act significantly increased the access of the GAO to the Federal Reserve Banks, the Board, and the Federal Open Market Committee (the FOMC). Since then, the GAO has conducted over 100 financial audits and performance audits of the three Federal Reserve bodies.
Scope of GAO Audits
Some of the more important GAO performance audits of the Fed have been in the areas of bank supervision, payment systems activities, and government securities activities. In the first area, the GAO examined how well the Fed was enforcing its regulatory powers over its member banks. In 1992 it drew attention to the Fed’s sluggish compliance with regulatory reforms mandated by the Foreign Bank Supervision Act of 1991. In examining the Fed’s payment system activities, the GAO made the Fed aware of how its pricing policies for such services as check-clearing affected private suppliers of check-clearing services, and also suggested ways to speed up the process of check collections. Security markets for government debt is a crucial market, and GAO performance audits of the Fed have lead to more openness in the primary dealer system, particularly concerning the disclosure of price information. The GAO is also involved in several ongoing performance audits of the Fed such as analysis of risks and benefits of interstate banking, regulation of derivatives, and the budget of the Federal Reserve system.
Audits By Private Accounting Firms
Financial audits of the Fed are also conducted regularly. Each Reserve Bank is audited every year by independent General Auditors who report directly to the Board of Governors. These examinations involve financial statement audits and reviews on the effectiveness of financial controls. Each Reserve Bank also has its own internal audit mechanisms. The Board contracts each year with an outside accounting firm to evaluate the audit program’s effectiveness. Price Waterhouse conducted an audit of the Board’s 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 financial statements…
The Board has also contracted with Coopers & Lybrand to conduct annual financial audits of the Board and the individual Federal Reserve Banks.
Exemptions to the Scope of GAO Audits
The Government Accounting Office does not have complete access to all aspects of the Federal Reserve System. The law excludes the following areas from GAO inspections (31 USCA §714):
(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, 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 items.
(Author’s note to readers: Please understand that Congress passed this restrictive act in the first place [Title 31, Section 714 – the subject of the entirety of the “Audit The Fed” bill], which limited the audit ability of the Comptroller General as it is reported to Congress. But the average person reading this most likely thinks that the Federal Reserve is a rogue agency that refuses to allow its transactions listed above to be audited. The Ron Paul campaign and Audit The Fed bill only serves to change a rule that Congress – not the Federal Reserve or the Comptroller General – already voted into law in 1978 – called the Federal Banking Agency Audit Act (TITLE 31, Section 714). The Fed has nothing to do with this fact and has no authority whatsoever to change or deny this law. In other words, it is Congress itself [the government corporation] that is currently keeping this information off of the Comptroller General’s audit to the Congress, and thus out of the realm of public or legislative disclosure. Understand this, and you understand controlled opposition politics.)
Continued…
In 1993 Wayne D. Angell, then a member of the Board of Governors, submitted testimony before a House subcommittee on the reasons for the restrictions on GAO access. He commented,
By excluding these areas, the (congressional) Act (TITLE 31, Section 714) attempts to balance the need for public accountability of the Federal Reserve through GAO audits against the need to insulate the central bank’s monetary policy functions from short-term political pressures and to ensure that foreign central banks and governmental entities can transact business in the U.S. financial markets through the Federal Reserve on a confidential basis.
In reference to a bill that would lift the constraints placed on the GAO’s audit authority over the Federal Reserve, Angell stated:
The benefits, if any, of broadening the GAO’s authority into the areas of monetary policy and transactions with foreign official entities would be small. With regard to purely financial audits, the Federal Reserve Act already requires that the Board conduct an annual financial examination of each Reserve Bank (CAFR)… The process of conducting financial audits is reviewed by a public accounting firm to confirm that the methods and techniques being employed are effective and that the program follows generally accepted auditing standards… Further, a private accounting firm audits the Board’s balance sheet… Finally, and more broadly, the Congress has, in effect, mandated its own review of monetary policy by requiring semiannual reports to Congress on monetary policy under the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978… In addition, there is a vast and continuously updated body of literature and expert evaluation of U.S. monetary policy. In this environment, the contribution that a GAO audit would make to the active public discussion of the conduct of monetary policy is not likely to outweigh the disadvantages of expanding GAO audit authority in this area.
For more on GAO restrictions, you can search the Government Printing Office website for GAO report T-GGD-94-44, entitled “Federal Reserve System Audits: Restrictions on GAO’s Access.”
The Budget of the Federal Reserve and Other Oversight
The budget of the Federal Reserve system is determined by each Bank and the Board of Governors. Stephen L. Neal, the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy in 1991, stated that “Congress plays no direct role in setting or authorizing the Fed’s budget.
“Control of its own budget is an essential component of the independence the Fed must enjoy.” Additional oversight of the Federal Reserve System derives from the ability of Congress to expand or to contract the Fed’s powers. On numerous occasions Congress has seen fit to change the Fed’s structure, alter its mission, and grant it new or different powers. In 1935 Congress changed the composition of the Board of Governors to give it more independence, and it allowed the Board to determine the discount rate for all Federal Reserve Banks rather than allow each Bank to set its own rate. In 1978 Congress mandated the Fed’s new goal to be full employment and price stability. In 1980 Congress granted the Fed new regulatory powers over non-member banks. Many other government reports on the audits of the Federal Reserve system are available on-line through the Government Printing Office website…
(Source: http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/flaherty/flaherty6.html) Reprinted above.
–End Excerpt–
–=–
Do you still believe that the Federal Reserve operates completely outside of government control?
Do you actually think that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and all who work for it are not employees of Federal government?
Really?
–=–
Will Ron Paul’s Audit The Fed Bill
“Change The Course Of The Country”
As Ron Paul Insists?
–=–
The short answer is a resounding NO!
Is it a start; a push in the right direction?
NO!!!
Will Ron Paul’s “Federal Reserve Transparency” bill accomplish anything new with regards to the House and Senate’s ability to utilize the already existing audits (CAFR) of the Federal Reserve for their employment purposes and use in their budgetary requirements and planning as a collective group of employees of the United States Government in the legislative process?
NO, NO, NO!!!
Will this bill make the Fed in any way more transparent to the Congress?
NO! QUITE THE OPPOSITE, ACTUALLY.
Will Congress use any new information (which there will be none) to End The Fed?
NOPE. THEY CREATED THE FED AND ITS SECRECY IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! THOUGH THEY MIGHT REPLACE OR MERGE IT INTO THE WORLD BANK STRUCTURE SOON.
Let me explain…
At any time they see fit, the House and the Senate may go to the Federal Reserve’s public website, just as you yourself can, and pull up the audit of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and of the individual banks themselves. This full audit, which follows the government’s own generally accepted accounting standards and practices and of which is absolutely required of all government entities by Federal Law, is called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), listed here as the “Annual Report” of the Fed…
LINK TO FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD AUDIT REPORTS SINCE 1995:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/annual-report/default.htm
LINK TO INDIVIDUAL FEDERAL RESERVE BANK AUDIT REPORTS FOR 2011: http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_fedfinancials.htm
So here it is – the over 500 page report of audited information in one comprehensive report that hardly anyone actually reads, including Congress. Most people don’t even know it exists – even for their own local and state governments. Instead, most people choose to read a published for-profit/non-fiction book full of loosely truthful and often plagiarized and rehashed historical information about the inception of the Federal Reserve Banks, and then continue to publicly vilify a bunch of incestuous bankers… who are no longer even in the realm of the living. Most are familiar with the fact that this central bank was created by the Federal Reserve Act (by Congress itself), but most have never bothered to actually read that Act! And so, most do not know that this central banking law has been ammended and changed every year by Congress to the point that this bank is a completely different animal than it was at its creation. This Act is not permenent in any way, and can be changed (for good or bad) or abolished at any time Congress sees fit. This fact may be a shock to many people.
The Federal Reserve Act can be found here, on the Federal Reserve Website, as well as in the U.S. CODE…
Link: http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/fract.htm
Note that the updated/amended Section 2B of the Federal Reserve Act states the following:
Section 2B. Appearances Before and Reports to the Congress…
(c) Public access to information. The Board shall place on its home Internet website, a link entitled `Audit’, which shall link to a webpage that shall serve as a repository of information made available to the public for a reasonable period of time, not less than 6 months following the date of release of the relevant information, including–
1. the reports prepared by the Comptroller General under section 714 of title 31, United States Code;
2. the annual financial statements (CAFR) prepared by an independent auditor for the Board in accordance with section 11B;
3. the reports to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate required under section 13(3) (relating to emergency lending authority); and
4. such other information as the Board reasonably believes is necessary or helpful to the public in understanding the accounting, financial reporting, and internal controls of the Board and the Federal reserve banks.
[12 USC 225b. As added by act of July 21, 2010 (124 Stat. 2118).]
And Section 11B of the amended Federal Reserve Act in U.S. CODE states the following:
Section 11B. Annual Independent Audits of Federal Reserve Banks and Board
The Board shall order an annual independent audit of the financial statements of each Federal reserve bank and the Board.
[12 USC 248b. As added by act of Nov. 12, 1999 (113 Stat. 1475).]
Now, for those of you who support without reservation or in depth examination the notion that Ron Paul’s Audit The Fed Bill will actually “help me (Ron Paul) make history – and help change the course of the country – by passing Audit the Fed through Congress”, well then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you!
Notice that the above “independent audits” and “annual financial statements” clauses were recently changed by Acts of Congress which amended the portion of U.S. CODE called the “Federal Reserve Act”. This of course means that the Congress has the power to require anything it wishes with regards to its requirements of an audit of any governmental department, via the utilization of its legislative powers and creation of law (bills and acts) – the ones that control the operations of the Federal Reserve Board and banks. Congress created the Federal Reserve Act. Congress amended this section which calls for an audit. And so at any time, the congress can require an unrestricted audit with the simple pushing of a few vote buttons and the signing of a pen, without any obfuscation or problem from or by the Federal Reserve system or its Board – or even the president of the United States. And this includes the so-called Audit the Fed bill that has pulled most of us into its all but worthless verbiage – a bill that would do absolutely nothing to create a new audit of the Federal Reserve, and which does not do one thing to acknowledge or change the reporting structure of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) – the actual “independently audited” financial statements of the Federal Reserve system available to the public (and to the congress).
This complete yet hidden power of Congress over the Fed through legislation is yet another aspect of the legend of the Federal Reserve Bank: the Fed has become a virtually impenetrable wall of fallacious conspiracy rhetoric that is almost impossible to overcome without study of the actual laws and information that bind the Federal Reserve System. And so the attention of the people has been drawn to the tool of government (the Fed) instead of to the controlling body of that tool (the Congress).
In fact, the subject of these Audit The Fed bills is TITLE 31, Section 714 of U.S. CODE. Ironically, congress created this section in 1978.
The perceived concept that the Federal Reserve is somehow completely separate from and totally outside of the authority or binding laws of its creator (congress) is perhaps the most egregious yet seemingly purposeful error that Ron Paul and his supporters parrot as the absolute truth.
Now, let’s examine this fallacy with some cold hard facts…
The Federal Reserve is what is called an “Independent Agency Of The United States Federal Government“.
LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_agencies_of_the_United_States_government
(Note: Yes, this is a Wikipedia site – but is very well sourced. Please utilize these sources!)
I must admit here that I believed at one time that this meant exactly what it sounds like – that the Federal Reserve is separate from and not under control of the government itself and of its congress (employees). But let’s examine what this title of “independent agency” actually means…
An Independent Agency of the government is a government agency that exists outside of the operational authorities of the Federal Executive Departments, which are those departments that are headed by the President’s Cabinet Secretaries or by the Presidential post itself via Executive Orders and Presidential Directives. These independent agencies are absolutely “constitutional”, as they are created by the “elected” officials of congress to be a part of your government. They are referred to as independent agencies strictly in the sense that, because they are created by congress, they are agencies under control of the legislative branch of government, not the executive branch. Therefore, the president has none to little power over these agencies except that which is granted by congress to the president. In this way, as a check and balance, the executive branch cannot control an agency created by the legislative branch. Thus, the agency’s operation is independent of total presidential control – but not of congressional control (via amendments to legislation or the un-incorporation (dissembling) of one of these “agencies” via congressional legislative statute). It is traditional for congress to appoint in its enabling acts for these independent agencies (as a courtesy between branches) the power of appointment of the heads of these agencies to the president of the United States (executive branch), and these appointments must generally be approved by congress after presidential appointment. But the president does not generally have the sole authority or power to un-appoint (fire) the head of that agency (employee), as this is not a power that is delegated by congress to the president. But just because the president’s power to dismiss an agency’s head or one of its members is limited by Congress, this does not give complete autonomous authority to that head or member of that independent agency. Such authority is delegated via a statutory grant as written in U.S. CODE (in other words, the president can request from congress that the agency head be fired and replaced, but cannot do it himself – which again does not mean that the head or chairman cannot be fired by government or is somehow above the law).
As well, the delegated authority of rule-making is also delegated by the congress. This privilege has been confused as the “independent” ability to make law. This is not the case. Again, the power to create independent rules from within the bounds of an independent agency does not equal complete autonomy from government or from the U.S. CODE (laws/statutes) that bind them.
To put this into perspective, my father certainly made his own seemingly (at the time) tyrannical rules for his house, and we the family (dependents/employees) had to obey those rules or face his personal wrath. But this in no way gave my father or the rest of my family the right to act in any way outside of the actual law. We the people of the family still were bound by the law, despite my fathers ability to make independent rules. Rules and laws are not the same thing, and the independent creation of rules within the Federal Reserve System is not the same as the creation of laws by congress that regulate the Federal Reserve. Laws will always trump rules without exception. The real problem is when the laws created by congress allow these independent agencies to create rules that allow what would otherwise be considered crime or treason!
Even the Senate and the House create their own set of independent rules within their halls. They call these the “Rules of Ethics”, and these rules are decided and overseen through a committee of House and Senate members for which they call the individual “Ethics Committees” (i.e. “The Senate Select Committee On Ethics”). But these rules and the rule making authority are separate from and beneath the US CODE “law” that Congress as a whole creates. And these ethics rules, similar to any other private corporation, are the rules of conduct while the members (employees) are at the workplace (halls of congress). Again, this does not in any way represent a separation of authority or an independence or exemption with regards to being a government agency controlled by acts of congress. Independent agency rules, however, do have the power of federal law, and they are overseen by these so-called ethics committees and referred to judicial review if these rules have been broken. The inherent problem here is that the Senate and House create ethics and decide what is ethical, and then oversee the committee that decides whether their own ethics rules have been violated. This could be compared to honor among thieves, where a group of thieves go underground and create a guild (committee) to decide upon what is honorable and punishable among their fellow crooks. Of course, thieves work together, and so exposing one thief for breaking the guild’s ethics and turning him over to the law through judicial review would likely expose the entire den of thieves for the same or similar crimes! And so the case of ethics or rules violations almost never gets out of these ethics committees – which are held by the fellow thieves (congressmen) and no outside, public, or unbiased juries. Therefore, laws that are broken can be covered up by ethics committee’s, since no internal rules were broken, and because the case never leaves committee (of fellow thieves) and enters the judicial review process. (More on these inadequate and corrupt “ethics committee’s” in a future video presentation.)
To hit this home even further to those whose faith in the independence fallacy just won’t be shaken or shattered, I’d like to compare the Federal Reserve agency to some other independent agencies of government.
1a) The Federal Reserve System is an independent agency of government.
1b) The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of government.
1c) The Social Security System is an independent agency of government.
2a) The Federal Reserve System is a government corporation created by an Act of Congress.
2b) The U.S. Postal Service is a government corporation created by an Act of Congress. (The Postal Clause in Article 1 of the United States Constitution empowered congress “To establish post offices and post roads” and in 1791, the executive department called the Post Office Department was created by congress. Finally, taking effect July 1, 1971, the “Postal Reorganization Act” was created by congress and signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970, replacing the cabinet-level (providentially controlled) Post Office Department with the new independent “United States Postal Service” corporation.)
2c) The Social Security System is a government corporation created by an Act of Congress. (The Social Security Act was established in congress and signed by the president on August 14, 1935. This Act created a Social Security Board (SSB) to oversee the administration of the new program. After several revisions, President Clinton signed {42 U.S.C. Section 901} 42 U.S.C. § 901 making the Social Security Administration (SSA) an independent agency of the executive branch of government. Its commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, was appointed by the president and sworn in on February 12, 2007 for a six-year term. As of that year, about 62,000 people were employed by the SSA corporation.)
3a) The U.S. Federal Reserve System has an independent board appointed by the president.
3b) The U.S. Postal Service has an independent board of governors appointed by the president. (As the governing body of the Postal Service, the 11-member Board of Governors [of the U.S. Postal Service] has responsibilities comparable to the board of directors of a publicly held corporation. The Board is made up of nine Governors appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. No more than five Governors can be members of the same political party. The Board currently has two seats vacant. The other two members of the Board are the Postmaster General and the Deputy Postmaster General. The Governors appoint the Postmaster General, who serves at their pleasure without a specific term of office. The Governors, together with the Postmaster General, appoint the Deputy Postmaster General.) (Link: http://about.usps.com/publications/annual-report-comprehensive-statement-2011/html/ar2011_report_8.htm)
3c) The U.S. Social Security System has an independent board appointed by the president. (The Social Security Act created a Social Security Board (SSB). The Board consisted of three presidentially appointed executives. In 1939, the Social Security Board merged into the Executive Cabinet-level Federal Security Agency, which included the SSB, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and other agencies. In 1946, the SSB was renamed the Social Security Administration under President Truman’s “Reorganization Plan”. In 1953, the Federal Security Agency was abolished and the SSA was placed under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), which became the Department of Health and Human Services in 1980. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law 42 U.S.C. § 901returning the SSA to the status of an independent agency in the executive branch of government. “The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) is an independent, bipartisan board created by Congress and appointed by the President and the Congress to advise the President, the Congress, and the Commissioner of Social Security on matters related to the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income programs.” (Link: http://www.ssab.gov/)
4a) The U.S. Federal Reserve System is bound by U.S. CODE (TITLE 12).
4b) The U.S. Postal Service is bound by U.S. CODE (TITLE 18, 39).
4c) The U.S. Social Security System is bound by U.S. CODE (TITLE 42).
5a) The U.S. Federal Reserve System can be abolished (uncreated) by congress at any time.
5b) The U.S. Postal Service can be abolished (uncreated) by congress at any time.
5c) The U.S. Social Security System can be abolished (uncreated) by congress at any time.
6a) The U.S. Federal Reserve System is audited and publishes a CAFR every year.
(Link–> http://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/annual-report/default.htm)
6b) The U.S. Postal Service is audited and publishes a CAFR every year.
(Link–> http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010/welcome.htm)
6c) The U.S. Social Security System is audited and publishes a CAFR every year.
(LINK–> http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2011/)
Other examples of independent agencies of government include:
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Maritime Commission (FMC)
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
United States International Trade Commission (USITC)
Postal Regulatory Commission
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
National Credit Union Administration
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, formally part of the Federal Reserve Board
Surface Transportation Board, within the Department of Transportation.
United States Maritime Administration, within the Department of Transportation.
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So why isn’t everyone in the Campaign For Liberty and the End The Fed movement trying to audit the already audited U.S. Postal Service? Why isn’t there an End The Post Office campaign? Why aren’t they concerned that an “independent agency of government” is handling everyone in the United States’ mail? Why isn’t the Post Office considered a grand conspiracy by a bunch of post-masters and men with a mail-fetish who make their own rules (not laws) and operate somewhat outside of executive (but not congressional) government control with a board of governors who cannot be fired by the president of the United States alone? And with the known corruption within the U.S. Postal Service, why the blatant lack of interest in this equally independent agency of government?
Why indeed… Probably because when put into this context, an Audit the U.S. Postal Service/Campaign For Liberty/End the Postal Service campaign sounds absolutely absurd, and it certainly wouldn’t win any elections or deliver millions into the campaign coffers.
But the evil banker angle… placing the blame on dead bankers and on everything but the actual laws that make everything the Federal Reserve does absolutely legal while completely diverting everyone’s attention away from these laws and the published yearly CAFR audits while stating that this already audited institution needs to be audited, and never correcting the people who state emphatically that the evil Fed has indeed never been audited… now that wins votes – and donations. It even wins your completely unqualified son a place on the U.S. Senate, complete with a mufti-million dollar tax-exempt expense account and a too good to be true life-long pension – nepotism at its finest. It might even get him a vice-presidential appointment… as long as he publicly supports his fellow Republican, Mitt Romney.
Folks, the problem here isn’t these independent agencies of government. The problem is GOVERNMENT itself! The central core incorporation of government is the controlling entity responsible for the laws that regulate these “independent” agencies. To blame the Fed for all of our problems is like blaming one individual thorn of a rose bush with multiple-dozens of thorns for the actions of, the growing of, the aroma of, and even the beauty of the entire rosebush. The thorn cannot exist without the entire Rose bush supporting its very prickliness.
But I digress… for we haven’t even taken a look at what the now infamous “Audit The Fed” bill will actually accomplish…
NOTHING!
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What Will The Audit The Fed Bill Accomplish?
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You’ve already read above what Wayne D. Angell stated in front of the congressional sub-committee on this subject in 1993. But perhaps you want to hear it from someone a bit more impartial than a former Federal Reserve Board member… someone like myself. So let’s examine this bill together, and break down exactly what this Federal Reserve Transparency bill will accomplish if it is passed – by actually reading the bill and which part of the U.S. CODE it will effect.
The following is the full text as taken from H.R. 459. I will comment after each short section in (red) below.
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112th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 459
To require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States before the end of 2012, and for other purposes.
A BILL
To require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States before the end of 2012, and for other purposes.
(Already we see a very misleading statement. The Board of Governors is already required to submit a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report [CAFR] which is audited independently from the board and is required by federal law to be available to the public [and therefore congress]. This bill says nothing about the CAFR, as you will see. And unfortunately, Ron Paul will not talk about or disclose the CAFR audit in his inspirational speeches, within the halls of congress, or within this bill. I can’t stress this enough… the already existing audit will not be changed, as it is considered the full financial audit of the Fed Board and the individual banks. The problem that stands out the most here is that the word “full” is not defined for the purposes of this bill and the audit it requires. The word full though, is certainly defined as the “audited financial statements” of government – the CAFR. Without a specific explanation of what this word “full” means in legalese, already this bill is absolutely worthless. The “full” audit already exists as pertaining to the definitions given by the Government Accounting Standards Board [GASB] the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board [FASAB] and Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures [GAAP]. Again, nothing in this bill defines the word full, or refers to the rules and regulations set forth for general accounting standards with regards to the generally accepted auditing procedures that all government entities and corporations follow. In short, nothing new will be created or presented because of this bill. You can read about these associations at the FASAB here: http://fasab.gov/accounting-standards/authoritative-source-of-gaap/)
H.R. 459 continued…
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011’.
SEC. 2. AUDIT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY FOR THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.
(a) In General- Notwithstanding section 714 of title 31, United States Code, or any other provision of law, an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) of such section 714 shall be completed before the end of 2012.
(Transparent, as defined by the World English Dictionary, means “easy to see through, understand or recognize; obvious, candid, open, or frank“. Thus, one would think that this “transparency bill” would not be specificaly written with regards to just one individual code or law, leaving so many other aspect of the law untouched. And one would think that such an Act would state quite clearly that: this act, when signed into law, would require a full and comprehensive one-time audit of the Federal Reserve System and all of its activities since its inception, without any limitations whatsoever [notwithstanding] that are already in place within the legal system and US CODE. But this is not the case. As we read further, we find that this bill does not create a new audit in any way, but instead only technically modifies slightly the already existing Comptroller General’s personal audit of the Federal Reserve Board Of Governors under TITLE 31 as it is reported to Congress – which is limited to this TITLE and section, stated above as “an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) of such section 714“. Since no other law affects this section [714], the misleading “notwithstanding” portion of this paragraph means absolutely nothing to the rest of U.S. CODE or to these generally accepted auditing standards, practices, and rules. Again, no new audit is created, only a slightly expanded version of the already existing Comptroller General’s audit as already required by the Federal Reserve Act (congress), Section 2b. In other words, a full audit per the definition of “full” via government standards by the Comptroller General will already be completed before the end of 2012 and for every year to follow, with or without this bills passage, because it is already the law!!!)
H.R. 459 continued…
(b) Report-
(1) IN GENERAL- A report on the audit (already) required under subsection (a) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
(Here it states that a “report” on the already existing and required audit of the Comptroller General must be submitted to Congress. A report? So Ron Paul only wants a report on the audit of the Federal Reserve System, and not the audit itself? Again, this full financial audit already exists – it’s called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report [CAFR]. But this audit will do nothing to benefit the people or congress, for the information found within these audits is not only legal, but will show absolutely nothing with regards to money or assets that can be used by Congress in its legislation. Their own law does not allow them to utilize the vast amounts of wealth shown within the audit [CAFR] for taxpayer benefits and services. This Act will do nothing towards the utilization of this Federal Reserve wealth for the benefit of national debt or for the benefit of the people, and it is not supposed to.)
H.R. 459 continued…
(2) CONTENTS- The report under paragraph (1) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.
(Yet again we see that this “report”, which is based upon the already existing audit of the Comptroller General, will be nothing more than the biased opinion [findings and conclusion] of the Comptroller General with respect to the actual audit (which Congress still wont see), followed by the Comptroller General’s recommendations for legal action against the Federal Reserve. But the Comptroller General of the United States is complicit in and oversees the actions of the Federal Reserve on behalf of the Treasury of the United States Federal Government!!! So this would be like asking the Pope or the head financial officer of the Catholic Church to incriminate one of the many for-profit entities of the Catholic Corporation called the Vatican, revealing a complete audit of the vaults underneath Vatican City in a one-time report. Good luck with that. Remember, the Comptroller General is an employee of the United States government, and is not there for the benefit of the people, no more than the auditor general of Target or Walmart is there for the benefit of the people over the corporation. Make no mistake… the Comptroller General can come out at any time he wishes, without a law that tells him he must, and spill the entire can of beans on the Federal Reserve. But he’d be dead, his family would be dead, or he’d in jail tomorrow for his betrayal. The Comptroller General is the head of the Government Accounting Office (a delegated authority), where the Federal Reserve is required to hand over its audited financial statements. So the Comptroller General is literally the gate-keeper of this information. And Ron Paul wants a “report” on the audit from this guy??? Really? And this act of futility has inspired a whole generation…)
H.R. 459 continued…
(c) Repeal of Certain Limitations- Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after ‘in writing.’.
(d) Technical and Conforming Amendment- Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking subsection (f).
END OF BILL
Here, at the end of this Act, we get to the good stuff. Re-enforcing the fact that this bill does not do one thing except to change one small portion of one small section within US CODE with regards to just one of the two already existing audits that are already conducted on the Federal Reserve System, this last part is perhaps the most deceiving rhetoric I have ever witnessed in a proposed legislation. Keeping in mind that this “Transparency” bill is supposed to create transparency for Congress… let’s see what section 714 of title 31 actually says in US CODE:
Paragraph (c) above refers to the following, under subsection (b) of TITLE 31, Section 714:
(b) Under regulations of the Comptroller General, the Comptroller General shall audit an agency, but may carry out an onsite examination of an open insured bank or bank holding company only if the appropriate agency has consented in writing. Audits of the 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 and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)–(3) of this subsection.
-End Code-
Firstly, this section of US CODE only refers to the audit conducted by the Comptroller General, and not to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). Thus, the CAFR is entirely unaffected by this bill. So right away we must ask why this is the case?
Second, this section states that the Comptroller General, when conducting his audit, may not include within that audit the above enumerated items. Now I will be the first to call foul on any verbiage in the law that allows secrecy or has clauses promoting secrecy in government. But this is not the issue, and in fact I would say that on the surface this is the only section in this entire bill that would actually accomplish something good, by removing these secrecy clauses from the US CODE. But we must look closely at the wording of this bill as it pertains to this intended alteration of this section of US CODE. For legal language is very deceiving to the average person. It is a secret language, and each legal term has a deeper and more binding meaning than that of our everyday rhetoric. Legalese is binding, whereas everyday language is not – unless spoken in a legal or contractual setting.
Paragraph (c) from the “Federal Reserve Transparency Bill” states:
(c) Repeal of Certain Limitations- Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after ‘in writing.’.
This paragraph will do exactly what it says it will do. It will strike all of subsection (b) in section 714 of Title 31 after the words “in writing”. This will change subsection (b) so that it will read in it’s entirety as the following:
(b) Under regulations of the Comptroller General, the Comptroller General shall audit an agency, but may carry out an onsite examination of an open insured bank or bank holding company only if the appropriate agency has consented in writing.
What will this accomplish?
Absolutely nothing.
In fact, it makes things worse!
This states quite succinctly that the Comptroller General may ask permission from the Federal Reserve Board or any open insured bank or bank holding company to conduct an audit, but that the specific “agency” must give its consent before such an audit or examination can be conducted. Remember, the president (executive branch) is limited in its authority over the Fed because of Congressional law, and the Comptroller General is a member (employee) of the Executive Branch of government. The Comptroller General’s power is nothing more than a delegation of authority by the president of the executive branch, and this Comptroller position carries no more authority than that of the president himself.
When we take this into consideration, we must then ask: why would Ron Paul, being in the legislative branch (the branch that created and ultimately controls the Fed), sponsor a bill that would only effect the law as it applies to the executive branch (Comptroller), of which the congress has no absolute power over?
Why would congressman Ron Paul create this law to be outside of the realm of congressional control, retaining the discretion and control of the audit within the executive office of the Comptroller General, all the while retaining the requirement of consent by the very entity being audited – the Federal Reserve System?
By not removing this consent clause of Title 31, Section 714, the Federal Reserve as an independent agency of the United States government may simply refuse to be audited (publicly) on the very things that would be stricken from this code by Ron Paul’s bill. And this will serve to fuel the fire of patriot rhetoric and controlled opposition alternative radio hosts as, once again, Ben Bernanke states to Congress that the Fed does not have to testify or present the audited facts that the congressional hearing is requesting… BECAUSE CONGRESS (GOVERNMENT) DOESN’T WANT IT STATED IN PUBLIC HEARINGS AND CREATED THE LAW THAT ALLOWS THE FED CHAIRMAN TO STATE THIS IN THE HEARING!!!
This revised law would state that the Fed must consent in writing to be audited by the Comptroller General, and can in fact deny the auditing process!
Does that sound like it would make the Federal Reserve in any way more “transparent” ???
In fact, if the Act was written so that it took away this consent clause, then and only then would this Act actually do anything to change the auditing process. But I would submit that this Act and this subsection would actually make the transparency of the auditing process less apparent and applicable in Congress (at least in public forums). Whereas before this bill would be passed, the limitations of this audit were specifically enumerated to the four (4) listed items that could not be and would not be written into the audit per US CODE, now this subsection technically states that all aspects of the Federal Reserve’s transactions can be refused without its written consent, not just the enumerated ones.
This, in turn, would technically give the Federal Reserve even greater delegated independence from Congress!!!
But only from Congress…
Because finally, the last subsection in HR 459 states:
(d) Technical and Conforming Amendment- Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking subsection (f).
What does this refer to? Section 714 of Title 31, subsection (f) as is currently written states the following:
(f) Audits of Credit Facilities of the Federal Reserve System.—
(1) Definitions.— In this subsection, the following definitions shall apply:
(A) Credit facility.— The term “credit facility” means a program or facility, including any special purpose vehicle or other entity established by or on behalf of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or a Federal reserve bank, authorized by the Board of Governors under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 343), that is not subject to audit under subsection (e).
(B) Covered transaction.— The term “covered transaction” means any open market transaction or discount window advance that meets the definition of “covered transaction” in section 11(s) of the Federal Reserve Act.
(2) Authority for audits and examinations.— Subject to paragraph (3), and notwithstanding any limitation in subsection (b) on the auditing and oversight of certain functions of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or any Federal reserve bank, the Comptroller General of the United States may conduct audits, including onsite examinations, of the Board of Governors, a Federal reserve bank, or a credit facility, if the Comptroller General determines that such audits are appropriate, solely for the purposes of assessing, with respect to a credit facility or a covered transaction—
(A) the operational integrity, accounting, financial reporting, and internal controls governing the credit facility or covered transaction;
(B) the effectiveness of the security and collateral policies established for the facility or covered transaction in mitigating risk to the relevant Federal reserve bank and taxpayers;
(C) whether the credit facility or the conduct of a covered transaction inappropriately favors one or more specific participants over other institutions eligible to utilize the facility; and
(D) the policies governing the use, selection, or payment of third-party contractors by or for any credit facility or to conduct any covered transaction.
(Please note here that the word “notwithstanding” is defined by the Random House Dictionary as: “in spite of; without being opposed or prevented by”. Therefore, this verbiage states that the Comptroller General is in fact NOT limited by paragraph (b) of this Title with regards to his office conducting an audit of the Federal Reserve at his or her discretion. In other words, the Comptroller General per this part of US CODE has authority over the Federal Reserve if he chooses to enforce it, and can at any time require a complete audit of any and all Federal reserve transactions, despite and without the consent of the Fed or its board, including these enumerated items in paragraph (b). By taking away this entire subsection of US CODE, this makes the Audit the Fed bill complicit in removing the verbiage of the already existing US CODE that gives the Comptroller General total discretionary auditing power over the consent of the Federal Reserve System!)
(So you must ask yourself: Why would Ron Paul wish to remove such an important distinction and allow the Federal Reserve to refuse an audit by the Comptroller General? And for what possible reason would Congressman Paul leave in the law the privilege of non-consent that is currently afforded to the Federal Reserve System?)
(I believe that these questions are impossible to answer without conceding to the fact that Ron Paul is controlled opposition and is playing the people, his constituents, and his” fans” like a fiddle.)
TITLE 31, Section 714 continued…
(3) Reports and delayed disclosure.—
(A) Reports required.— A report on each audit conducted under paragraph (2) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed.
(B) Contents.— The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusions of the Comptroller General with respect to the matters described in paragraph (2) that were audited and are the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action relating to such matters as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.
(Once again, there is no reason to remove these two sections. In fact, this is what the new HR 459 states as its purpose – a report on the audit.)
TITLE 31, Section 714 continued…
(C) Delayed release of certain information.—
(i) In general.— The Comptroller General shall not disclose to any person or entity, including to Congress, the names or identifying details of specific participants in any credit facility or covered transaction, the amounts borrowed by or transferred by or to specific participants in any credit facility or covered transaction, or identifying details regarding assets or collateral held or transferred by, under, or in connection with any credit facility or covered transaction, and any report provided under subparagraph (A) shall be redacted to ensure that such names and details are not disclosed.
(ii) Delayed release.— The nondisclosure obligation under clause (i) shall expire with respect to any participant on the date on which the Board of Governors, directly or through a Federal reserve bank, publicly discloses the identity of the subject participant or the identifying details of the subject assets, collateral, or transaction.
(Note here that subparagraph (i) is nullified by subparagraph (ii), stating that (i) will “expire” whenever (ii) happens. This in no way limits the release of information, but only delays that full release of information for the benefit of the Fed’s clients.)
TITLE 31, Section 714 continued…
(iii) General release.— The Comptroller General shall release a nonredacted version of any report on a credit facility 1 year after the effective date of the termination by the Board of Governors of the authorization for the credit facility. For purposes of this clause, a credit facility shall be deemed to have terminated 24 months after the date on which the credit facility ceases to make extensions of credit and loans, unless the credit facility is otherwise terminated by the Board of Governors.
(Princeton University defines the word redact – to prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising, or adapting; formulate in a particular style or language. Therefore, Congressman Ron Paul’s bill will halt the Comptroller General from releasing a nonredacted [unaltered] report.)
TITLE 31, Section 714 continued…
(iv) Exceptions.— The nondisclosure obligation under clause (i) shall not apply to the credit facilities Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, and Maiden Lane III.
(The Maiden Lane corporations will now be less transparent to Congress under HR 459.)
TITLE 31, Section 714 continued…
(v) Release of covered transaction information.— The Comptroller General shall release a nonredacted version of any report regarding covered transactions upon the release of the information regarding such covered transactions by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, as provided in section 11(s) of the Federal Reserve Act.
-End current CODE-
(The Federal Reserve Board will no longer be required (by Congress) to release a nonredacted (unedited) version of reports of “covered transactions”. How is this a good thing?)
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Or… You Could Just Ask For It!
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It is interesting to note that the Code Of Federal Regulations (CFR) states that if you just simply create a subpoena requesting the audited financial reports, anyone can freely obtain the audit.
4 CFR 82 – FURNISHING RECORDS OF THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE IN JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS
(4 CFR 82.1) – Court subpoenas or requests.
(a) A subpoena or request from a court for records of the Government Accountability Office should be directed to the Comptroller General of the United States and served upon the Records Management and Services Officer, Office of Information Systems and Services.
(b) In honoring a court subpoena or request original records may be presented for examination but must not be presented as evidence or otherwise used in any manner by reason of which they may lose their identity as official records of the Government Accountability Office. They must not be marked or altered, or their value as evidence impaired, destroyed, or otherwise affected. In lieu of the original records, certified copies will be presented for evidence purposes since they are admitted in evidence equally with the originals (31 U.S.C. 704).
Are we to believe that the Congress does not have the authority of requiring judicial review? I assure you, the Senate and House Ethics Committees have this authority – though they seldom use it, as this would expose their collective and very well organized crime within this den of honorable thieves.
TITLE 31 Section 704 (referenced above) states:
(a) To the extent applicable, all laws generally related to administering an agency apply to the Comptroller General.
(b) A copy of a record and a transcript from a record or proceeding of the Comptroller General, that the Comptroller General or Deputy Comptroller General certifies under seal, shall be admitted as evidence with the same effect as a copy or transcript referred to in section 1733 of title 28.
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An Unfortunate Conclusion
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Without apologies, this research and writing should in no way be misinterpreted as any form of support for the Federal Reserve System or the usury that supports its organized crime by myself, or that this is just some personal attack on Ron Paul. You’ve missed the whole point of my unbiased, not-for-profit efforts here if that is your conclusion. Again, this is simply information, important information, that you should consider before placing such fervent and un-withering faith in any man. A member of a corporation or in the allegiance of a political party is not acting as a man, but as a corporate person representing only special interests.
In the end, as we have read, this whole thing is a fraud. It is deception of the most intricately clever kind. It represents the epitome of the downfall of the American people and the destruction of our country; which relies on the good intentions and hope and faith of its voting public. In short, this bill represents the ultimate power of misinformation and the controlled opposition that is beholden of it. We are a defeated people in all respects of our lives – from education to incarceration – from corporate politics to corporate religion – from financial usury to medical malfeasance… all of which is made possible by the actions and inaction of Congress.
And yet we are all supposed to believe the old cry of the oppressors… Poor Congress. They’ve got their hands tied. They aren’t allowed to see certain things. They are powerless. On and on and on…
And yet it is their own hands for which they themselves tie in red tape created by themselves, and they are laughing all the way to the international World Bank while switching back and forth between the public and private sectors, becoming board members, CEO’s, and special issue stock-holders of the very corporations they are supposed to be regulating.
Silly sheep, tricks are for us.
And for all of us, I end this rant with my favorite quote:
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“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe–
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–Clint Richardson (realitybloger.wordpress.com)
–Saturday, June 23, 2012
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