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Ron Paul discusses the pitfalls his “Audit the Fed” amendment faces during the legislative process, vastly increased public awareness of the Federal Reserve and central banking, gold’s increase in value relative the dollar and why the US empire would be impossible to maintain without the Fed’s ability to monetize debt.

Show: AntiWar Radio
Host: Scott Horton
Date: 05/13/2010

Transcript

Scott Horton: Alright, y’all. Welcome back to the show. It’s AntiWar Radio on KAOS 95.9 FM in Austin, Texas. And our next guest is AntiWar.com’s man in the House of Representatives. He makes Thomas Jefferson look like James Madison. It’s Dr. Ron Paul from District 14 now in Texas Gulf Coast. Welcome back to the show, Ron.

Ron Paul: Good afternoon, good to be with you.

Scott Horton: Well, I’m happy to talk to you again. Sort of bad news with the watered-down version of the audit amendment passed in the Senate, but I thought I would start this interview off with a little bit of positivity which is that, well, six months ago in the House of Representatives, Mel Watt and others were more than happy to carry Ben Bernanke’s water and oppose your real audit amendment and yet in the Senate not one Senator dared to really come out against this audit. You get all the credit. You did it. You have the whole country against the Federal Reserve now, and you have the Senate and the entire government running scared, Ron. Congratulations and thank you.

Ron Paul: Well, let’s hope so.

Scott Horton: So now this watered-down version of the amendment — the audit amendment, what exactly does it mandate? Could you explain to us the difference between what your amendment had and what this does?

Ron Paul: Well, I guess the best way to describe it is [the Sanders amendment] does require disclosure of what they did in the last two years in the bailout. So it’s not a truthful audit and it’s not ongoing. It won’t last into the next years. It’s just to disclose which companies and where the money went during that scramble to bail out our economy. So it’s a minor victory.

The biggest victory is a PR victory in that we have the American people now very much more knowledgeable about the Federal Reserve than ever before. They know the Federal Reserve is powerful, they create money, and they bail out their friends. I think that’s the most important thing.

But this whole story about having a real audit is not quite over because it looks like it will not be put in the Senate bill, it is in the House bill – the Financial Reform Bill, and they might have to have a conference. If they do then there’ll be an argument over which version to use—the watered-down version. Actually they could use both because what was passed in the Senate, although it was not a true audit, it was worthwhile. I would not have been able to vote against it. I just did not like the process.

Some of the senators are already saying when supporters call in and ask a Senator, “Why didn’t you vote for Vitter’s Amendment?” Vitter introduced 1207, our bill. And they said, “Oh well, we voted for Sanders’ bill.” See, it was to give them political cover and it made people feel better about it and they confused the public but you don’t have to get rid of what Sanders did, but it would be nice if in the conference we could get the House side of the full audit. We still have a ways to go on that because they can avoid the conference if they want and that raises other questions.

Continue reading “Ron Paul on AntiWar Radio: No US Empire Without The Fed”

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