HR 1207 Debate
Posted on November 21, 2009
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
It starts off with Grayson, who joins Paul supporting HR 1207 to audit the fed, wanting to strip the provisions from this “Watt” amendment that essentially guts the audit of fed to a simple suggestion. This is the very first time I’ve ever seen an argument against auditing the fed that was more than a few lines (although to Watt’s credit he claims he still wants to audit the fed). Watt seems to think that making independent decisions and being accountable are linked in a way that if a government agency is independent the only way for it to stay independent is for the congress not to have any idea what it’s doing. I see his point but what he’s arguing for is the congress to have less power in an area of the economy that’s been proven to have not functioned for the American people. If economic policy should really be this sacred Watt should have made these audit powers temporary, as there is no question the secrecy of the fed to congress helped cause this problem. If the Federal Reserve knows it only has to be accountable to itself it’s going to make decisions based on it’s own self-interest, and not the interest of the economy. You could argue that the goal of the Federal Reserve shouldn’t be for the American people and that it’s future, somehow, isn’t directly linked to America, but I don’t see that argument being made. Watt claims that because these congress members don’t trust the Federal Reserve it would be equally as silly to trust the CBO. In other words, the checks and balances we have in place are useless because the check to the balance is part of the check and balance system and wouldn’t check or balance anything because we lack trust in it. If that argument made no sense to you, it’s the exact reason why Mr. Watt is just another talking point for the unaccountable government that helped create this problem in the first place.
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