Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4
minutes to another gentleman from
Texas (Mr. PAUL).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
2010 Ron Paul 29:2
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this
motion to instruct. I think it is a good
idea that we donít have the taxpayers
bailing out eternally institutions that
are bankrupt.
2010 Ron Paul 29:3
But there is an important thing to
remember, that when an economy gets
out of kilter, the marketplace demands
a correction of that. And thatís usually
called the recession. Of course, we are
not discussing here today exactly how
we get into the excesses, but we do.
And, unfortunately, debt gets too high
and mal-investment gets too excessive,
and the market wants to correct this.
2010 Ron Paul 29:4
Now, itís essential that this excessive
debt be liquidated. It can be liquidated
in two different ways. It can be written
off by inflationary currency and paid
off with bad money, or it can be liquidated
actually through the bankruptcy
process.
2010 Ron Paul 29:5
So I am in strong support of this, but
I also want to make a point here and a
suggestion to the conferees that they
pay attention to the provision in the
House version of our bill dealing with
the Federal Reserve. And that provision
is called H.R. 1207, which deals
with the auditing. And there is a difference
between the Senate version and
the House version.
2010 Ron Paul 29:6
So, although we are not talking
about that specifically, to me itís important,
not only for the issue of oversight
and transparency, but there is
also an opportunity for the Federal Reserve
to provide bailout provisions for
certain organizations, as well. We are
talking about taxpayersí funds, the appropriated
funds, TARP funds and others.
But when we come to extending
loans, in a way this very much is a
bailout.
2010 Ron Paul 29:7
So I would like to suggest that we
look at that and stand by the House
provision. We do have 319 cosponsors of
this provision.
Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. If the
gentleman would yield, as you know, I
was for some form of that. And I guarantee,
because the Senate has acted,
we will have tough auditing provisions
of the Federal Reserve in the final bill.
And I do want to note to my friend
from Texas that, when the Republicans
offered a motion to recommit to the
bill, they would have wiped out a number
of things, including his audit provision.
So despite the fact that my friend
from Texas temporarily abandoned his
audit provision to the perils of a recommittal
provision, I will join with
him in reviving it.
And, as he knows, we have in our bill
a severe limitation on this power under
section 13(3) for making these loans.
What they did with AIG will no longer
be possible. There will be no more
loans to individual institutions.
But he has been the leader on the
audit situation, and I intend to continue
to work with him to make sure it
is well done.
2010 Ron Paul 29:9
And I would just like to reemphasize
that it is the responsibility of the Congress
to commit to oversight of the
Federal Reserve, something that we
have been derelict in doing. I think the
mood of this House and the mood of the
Senate and the mood of the country is
more transparency and more oversight.
2010 Ron Paul 29:10
The provision in the Senate version
is not adequate for an audit of the Fed.
So I am encouraged that we are getting
more attention because, ultimately, it
is necessary that we understand exactly
how the business cycle comes
about and how the Federal Reserve
participates in this.
2010 Ron Paul 29:11
Because, under the circumstances of
today, on what we are doing, we are
prolonging our agony. And someday I
would hope to see that our recessions—
and now we are talking about depressions
—are minimized and shortened.
And I am concerned that the programs
that we are working with today are
prolonging those changes.
2010 Ron Paul 29:12
So the most important thing that we
can do is make sure that we exert our
responsibilities, have oversight of the
Federal Reserve, commit to these audits
of the Federal Reserve, and not to
endorse the idea that the Federal Reserve
is totally secret, can do what
they want, can bail out other companies
and banks and foreign governments
and foreign central banks without
fully knowing exactly what they
are doing.
2010 Ron Paul 29:13
Once again, I thank the chairman of
the committee for his support for auditing
the Fed.
