Rand Paul presidential campaign, 2016/Banking policy
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 Rand Paul |
U.S. Senator (Assumed office: 2011) |
 Republican candidate: |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 |
This page was current as of the 2016 election.
- On January 12, 2016, Rand Paul’s legislation] that proposed auditing the Federal Reserve was rejected by the Senate 55-44. Presidential candidates Marco Rubio presidential campaign, 2016|Marco Rubio]] and Bernie Sanders voted for Paul’s proposal.[2]
- Paul co-wrote a January 10, 2016, op-ed in TIME to promote his bill requiring the Federal Reserve be audited. He criticized the lack of transparency in the agency, calling it “a political, oligarchic force, and a key part of what looks and functions like a banking cartel.”[3]
- During a speech in Las Vegas, on December 16, 2015, Paul discussed the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates. He said, “Is it a good thing or a bad thing to raise the interest rate? Well, I’m kind of agnostic on it. It’s kind of like if you ask me: All right, should the Politburo raise the price of bread or lower the price of bread? I like both prices, but the real question should be: Should the government be involved with setting prices? What amazes me about the Federal Reserve setting interest rates is that almost to a person, conservative economists in our country will say, wage and price controls are a mistake. Most economists will say, yes, we have to have free prices. Yet we very carelessly, I think, allow this power to go [to the Fed]. What happens is the price of money is set, basically, by a Politburo. But just like the price of bread, they have no idea what they're doing. The reason the Soviet Union failed is that it couldn’t come up with something as simple as the price of bread. You could say there are moral reasons for prices, and you wouldn't be an economist. You'd be a politician.”[4]
- In November 2015, Paul introduced two bills to reform the Federal Reserve. The first, S 2232 - Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015, would require a full audit of the Federal Reserve by the Comptroller General. The second, S 2288 - Bring Accountability Now to the Fed Act of 2015, would "prohibit members and staff of the Federal Reserve System from lobbying for or against legislation."[5][6]
- In a February 10, 2015, op-ed for Breitbart, Paul argued that there should be greater regulation of the Federal Reserve rather than of small community banks. He wrote, "So, after the banking crisis of 2008, we got alarmed and we passed regulations. The only problem is, we passed regulations on the banks that weren’t involved and gave more power to the bank that was involved—the Fed. No bank in Kentucky failed during this crisis, yet Dodd-Frank pummeled our small community banks with crippling regulations. What we really needed was more oversight of the Fed, not small community banks." Paul also expressed concern that the Federal Reserve was not properly independent from the executive branch.[7]
- In an August 2013 interview, Paul said the Republican Party should adopt the Tea Party value of opposition to bank bailouts. "It has been a part of the early message of the Tea Party, but the Republican Party hasn’t captured that message. The average guy who’s working class is not real excited about paying taxes and sending it out to bail out a guy who makes $100 million a year. And so I think the Republican message should be that we treat people the same whether you’re a small business person, a working-class guy, or a big bank on Wall Street," Paul said.[8]
- Paul introduced S 202 - Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 in January 2011, which sought a full audit of the Federal Reserve.[9]
Recent news
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Politico, "Rand Paul dropping out of White House race," February 3, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Senate rejects Paul’s push to audit the Fed," January 12, 2016
- ↑ TIME, "Sen. Rand Paul: The Fed Is Crippling America," January 10, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "After interest rate announcement, Rand Paul compares Federal Reserve to Soviet Politburo," December 16, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.2232 - Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015," November 3, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.2288 - Bring Accountability Now to the Fed Act of 2015," November 17, 2015
- ↑ Breitbart, "Sen. Rand Paul: Audit the Fed," February 10, 2015
- ↑ Bloomberg, "Rand Paul on Republicans' Voter Appeal and the Federal Reserve," August 8, 2013
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.202 - Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011," accessed December 9, 2015
