Rep. Paul and the Federal Reserve

Praise God! This is one of my biggest beefs. We can cut, cut, cut our Federal budget in Congress, but if the Fed continues to print money, it won't matter one bit. Our dollar will disappear.

from: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=230065

Change is about to come to monetary policy on Capitol Hill, but it might not be the type of change President Obama or Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have in mind.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a strong critic of fiat monetary policies, is scheduled as the ranking member to become in January the chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology, commonly known as the "House monetary subcommittee."

Known for his outspoken criticism of the Federal Reserve and for his determination to return the U.S. dollar to some form of a gold standard, Paul, as chair of the House monetary subcommittee, will have a position of authority from which to hold a serious and robust public debate about decades of government monetary and fiscal policy.

In an exclusive interview, WND asked Paul what he plans to do once he becomes chairman of the panel.

"First and foremost, I want the subcommittee to actually begin talking about monetary policy," Paul said. "The Federal Reserve has insisted that Congress has no role in monetary policy. But that's not what the Constitution says."

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution assigns to Congress the right to coin money; the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the Federal Reserve. There is no mention of a U.S. central bank in the Constitution.

In Congress, Paul has been in the lead, sounding the alarm as federal budget deficits under President Obama have escalated in fiscal year 2010 to $1.3 trillion, while the national debt has mounted to nearly $14 trillion, a sum that nearly equals the nation's gross domestic product.

"The Fed operates in secret," Paul said. "What the subcommittee needs is to act like a monetary policy committee. What we need is an honest debate in which subcommittee can bring to the American public views the Fed may never consider."