Watch the video here. Read the full story

For the first time in history, the Federal Reserve Bank may be facing an audit. On Thursday, the House Finance Committee passed a bill (HR 1207) that authorizes the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a wide-ranging audit of the Fed’s secretive deals with foreign central banks and major U.S. financial institutions.

HR 1207, sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), currently has 313 co-sponsors in the House from both sides of the aisle, which is a veto-proof majority. A companion bill in the Senate (S 604) has 30 co-sponsors.

Glenn Greenwald, an investigative reporter writing for Salon.com, points out what may be the most significant aspect of the passage of HR 1207: Read the full story

The Real Reasons Behind Fed Secrecy

Last week I was very pleased that the Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207. The bill has 295 cosponsors and there is also strong support for the companion bill in the Senate. This hearing was a major step forward in getting the bill passed. Read the full story

Click here to watch the live webcast of the hearing.

On Friday, September 25th the House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a full committee hearing on Ron Paul’s HR.1207 to audit the Federal Reserve. The hearing is slated to begin at 9am eastern time. For details and a link to the (eventual) live streaming video of the hearing check out the committee website. Read the full story

Video is of former State Trooper Greg Evensen.

This excerpt is from The Daily Paul on 9/15/2009:

Many of you have been wondering about the validity of Greg Evensen’s information about the RFID vaccination-bracelets. Read the full story

In a critical development for the future of the Federal Reserve, Ron Paul has confirmed that today HR 1207 has garnered the elusive one vote to bring it to a total of 290, or a two-thirds congressional majority. At this point passage of the bill is guaranteed, and hopefully some long, long overdue transparency into the Wall Street-pandering machinations that occur every day within the Fed’s four walls at the expense of the American middle class and unmitigated destruction of the US Dollar will finally become a fact.

http://www.zerohedge.com/

We need to push for this, I have to catch up on some sleep right now but I will elaborate more for the uninformed tomorrow.

This is good news for Ron Paul and his Campaign for Liberty. There have been threats by the Fed and others that auditing the Fed would have devastating consequences for the American, and world, economy. What exactly are they hiding?

Check out the videos from Ron Paul and others for some more information on this topic. Read the full story

I find myself questioning the government’s decision to destroy all the cars that are traded in through this program. That has to cost money, and I’m sure the taxpayers will get the bill. With all the emphasis being placed on becoming more environmentally friendly, I believe Ron Paul made a great point about the environmental impact this program has as well.

Cash for Clunkers

The Cash for Clunkers program has received a lot of attention this week on Capitol Hill and across the country. The program offers a voucher of up to $4500 in federal funds to anyone who trades in a working used car for a new one with better fuel economy. Congress was shocked at how quickly people responded to promises of free money and drained the program, while car dealers have been equally shocked at how slow and arduous the government’s website to claim the rebates has been.

It’s not a shock that people respond to incentives. The program has been deemed a resounding success, and Congress has authorized 2 billion more taxpayer dollars for it. But not everyone is happy about this. Low-income earners who would have been in the market for those perfectly serviceable, working cars will have fewer to choose from, and those cars will probably be more expensive than they normally would have been. Automotive repair shops actively lobbied against this program, as it will destroy many of the cars they would have repaired. They were out-lobbied. And of course, Americans as a whole are hurt, because this additional bailout of auto companies comes at our expense through inflation.

I have introduced a somewhat similar bill that would have provided a much better alternative to Cash for Clunkers because it does not rely on increased government bureaucracy or spending. My bill HR 1768 provides tax credits to people trading in used cars for new cars with better fuel economy. There is a big difference, in my mind, between letting people keep their own money versus giving them someone else’s. It is clear which one a free and fair society would choose. Not only that, but my bill would not have required working, serviceable cars to be destroyed for scrap metal.

Cash for Clunkers is a popular program right now, but in the larger scheme of things it does very little towards accomplishing its stated goals. Requiring cars to be destroyed and new ones made to replace them might help the auto industry in the short run, but any improved fuel economy will not make up for the environmental impact of junking one car and making a new one. So this is not a program that should really make environmentalists happy.

There is also much evidence that the boost in demand for autos, that has made dealers happy, is just borrowed demand from the past and the future. In other words, many have put off purchases they would have made anyway because they were waiting to see what the government would do. Others who would have waited a little longer to trade in a vehicle are accelerating their decisions so they can get in before the money runs out. So I would not be surprised to find that this artificial boom in auto sales is followed by an extended drop. This should serve as a very tangible example of how government meddling in the economy creates booms and busts. While everyone loves the booms, the busts are what creates the crises that government thrives on, and that is what we really need to watch out for!

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If you are not familiar with the congressman from Texas, this post will offer plenty of information about Ron Paul and his political career.

Click here to visit Dr. Ron Paul’s web site.
Taken from House.gov’s web page for Ron Paul:

Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the “one exception to the Gang of 535″ on Capitol Hill.

Ron Paul was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Gettysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine, before proudly serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s. He and his wife Carol moved to Texas in 1968, where he began his medical practice in Brazoria County. As a specialist in obstetrics/gynecology, Dr. Paul has delivered more than 4,000 babies! He and Carol, who reside in Lake Jackson, Texas, are the proud parents of five children and have seventeen grandchildren.

While serving in Congress during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dr. Paul’s limited-government ideals were not popular in Washington. He served on the House Banking committee, where he was a strong advocate for sound monetary policy and an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary measures. He also was a key member of the Gold Commission, advocating a return to a gold standard for our currency. He was an unwavering advocate of pro-life and pro-family values. Dr. Paul consistently voted to lower or abolish federal taxes, spending, and regulation, and used his House seat to actively promote the return of government to its proper constitutional levels. In 1984, he voluntarily relinquished his House seat and returned to his medical practice.

Dr. Paul returned to Congress in 1997 to represent the 14th Congressional district of Texas. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee, the International Relations committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. On the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Paul serves as the vice-chairman of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee. He continues to advocate a dramatic reduction in the size of the federal government and a return to constitutional principles.

Dr. Paul is the author of several books, including Challenge to Liberty; The Case for Gold; and A Republic, If You Can Keep It. He has been a distinguished counselor to the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and is widely quoted by scholars and writers in the fields of monetary policy, banking, and political economy. He has received many awards and honors during his career in Congress, from organizations such as the National Taxpayers Union, Citizens Against Government Waste, the Council for a Competitive Economy, Young Americans for Freedom, and countless others.

Dr. Paul’s consistent voting record prompted one Congressman to comment that “Ron Paul personifies the Founding Fathers’ ideal of the citizen-statesman. He makes it clear that his principles will never be compromised, and they never are.” Another Congresswoman added that “There are few people in public life who, through thick and thin, rain or shine, stick to their principles. Ron Paul is one of those few.”

Biography.com also has a good biographical page for Congressman Paul.  (click here to visit biography.com’s Ron Paul page)

QUICK FACTS
Born: August 20, 1935 (Pittsburgh, PA)
Lives in: Lake Jackson, Texas
Zodiac Sign: Leo
Family: Married wife Carol in 1957, 3 sons Ronald Jr., Randal, and Robert, 2 daughters Lori and Joy, 17 grandchildren
Parents: Howard and Margaret Paul
Religion: Baptist
Education:
Graduated from Gettysburg College (1957)
Earned a medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine (1961)
Career: U.S. Representative from Texas, 1976-1977, 1979-1985, 1997-present
Government Committees:
House Banking Committee
House Committee on Financial Services
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Books:
-Gold, Peace and Prosperity: The Birth of a New Currency (1981)
-The Case for Gold: A Minority Report of the U.S. Gold Commission (1982)
-Abortion and Liberty (1983)
-Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution after 200 Years (1987)
-Challenge to Liberty: Coming to Grips with the Abortion Issue (1990)
-The Party System (2007)
-A Foreign Policy of Freedom (2007)

His full name is Ronald Ernest Paul, and he has become one of the surprising candidates in the Republican race for the presidential nomination. This is his second run for president. In 1988, he made his first bid as the Libertarian candidate.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ron Paul was the third out of five sons. As a child, he helped out in the family’s dairy business. He continued working as a paper boy and later at a local drug store. In high school, Paul was a member of the track and wrestling teams and served as the president of the student council. Discovering love at an early age, He met his future wife Carol while in high school.

In his last year of college, Ron Paul married Carol. After he graduated in 1957, the couple moved to Durham, North Carolina, where Ron attended the Duke University School of Medicine. Finishing his degree in 1961, he and his young family then moved to Detroit, Michigan. There Paul did his internship and residency at Henry Ford Hospital. Serving his country, he was as a doctor in the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and then with the United States Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.

Specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, Paul opened his own practice in Texas. During the course of his career, he is said to have delivered more than 4,000 babies. In the 1970s, Paul became active in politics, making a failed Congressional bid in 1974. But he was victorious two years later in a special election to replace Representative Robert R. Casey who had resigned. That same year, he established the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE).

His first stint in the House of Representatives was only a matter of months. He did not retain his post in the general election later that year. On his next try in 1978, however, Paul was elected and even re-elected twice. Emerging as a strong critic of the country’s banking and financial systems, he began writing about his economic theories. In 1981, his book Gold, Peace and Prosperity: The Birth of a New Currency was published and was quickly followed by The Case for Gold: A Minority Report of the U.S. Gold Commission (1982). He expressed his pro-life and anti-federal government views in 1983’s Abortion and Liberty.

Rand Paul Enters Senate Race

From Kentucky Public Radio’s Lisa Autry

Bowling Green eye doctor Rand Paul says he will seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Jim Bunning. Paul officially declared his candidacy Wednesday, ending months of speculation. Read the full story

According to a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports 3 out of 4 Americans, from across the spectrum of age, race, political affiliation and income, agree with
Ron Paul and the 279 cosponsors of his bill (H.R. 1207) in the House of Representatives that the Federal Reserve should open its books to an independent audit. Read the full story