Yesterday, the Philadelphia Libertarian Examiner outlined different ways people are trying to end or audit the Federal Reserve and all of its shenanigans.

One suggestion was to go to auditthefed.com and send one of their form letters to your Congressman. The letters urge them to support HR 1207 (formerly HR 459). We sent the following letter to Democrat US Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz yesterday:

Dear Representative Schwartz,

Now that over $12 trillion have been pledged towards our financial crisis, more people than ever are concerned about where their money is going, and if it's accomplishing anything.

But in the face of an ever-worsening recession, the Federal Reserve refuses to furnish Congress and the American people with records of how the Bank is allotting and spending trillions of bailout dollars.  Shrouded in secrecy, the Federal Reserve is a danger to our political process: No one knows where our money is going or what it is doing, and Chairman Bernanke has said that efforts to disclose such information are "counterproductive."

But that's my money they're using, Representative Schwartz!  $12 trillion!  And without any record of how the Federal Reserve is managing and distributing these trillions of taxpayer dollars, there is no way to know if our present course is sustainable or not.

We must know what is happening with our money, and the Federal Reserve must come clean with the American people.

Please cosponsor HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, and do everything in your power to see this bill through to a passing vote.

Here's the response we got back from Schwartz. You decide if she addressed The Fed at all:

Dear Mr. Proctor,

As I work to address the needs of American families and businesses at home and across the country, it is important that I hear your views and concerns.  I appreciate you taking the time to contact my office and I am happy to share with you my views on the federal budget.

To understand the federal deficit I believe that it is important to see where our tax dollars are being spent.  This year the federal government will spend approximately $3.7 trillion dollars and collect approximately $2.2 trillion in revenue.  This will lead to a deficit of $1.5 trillion.

The federal budget is dominated by three categories: defense, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid.  These programs alone account for sixty percent of the federal budget and cutting the remaining 40 percent of federal spending to zero would not solve our current deficit problems.

In 2010, defense spending accounted for the largest share of the federal budget at 20 percent ($715 billion).  The second largest share of the federal budget was spent on Social Security ($708 billion).  Three health insurance programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) accounted for 21 percent of the budget ($753 billion).  Roughly 14 percent of the federal budget ($482 billion) was spent supporting programs that provide aid to individuals and families facing hardship.  Approximately 6 percent of the budget ($209 billion) was spent to pay interest on the national debt.  The remaining 20 percent of the budget was spent on various other programs, including veterans, transportation, scientific and medical research, education, international affairs, and benefits for federal retirees.  For a full budget breakdown, I would encourage you to take a look at the Congressional Budget Office's website at www.cbo.gov.

The federal budget is large and complex.  In order to tackle the federal deficit, Congress must pursue every avenue possible in seeking out savings.  There are certainly cuts that can be made, but there are also numerous tax loopholes for special interests that we must close.  Between the last two stop-gap spending bills that Congress has sent to the President, we have managed to find $47 billion in cuts to federal spending—$41 billion in December 2010 and $6 billion in February 2011.

There is still much work to be done to restore economic vitality and security to our nation and I am honored to represent you during these critical debates in Congress.  I appreciate hearing from you concerning the Federal Budget deficit and will keep your views in mind as proposals come before Congress.

Sincerely,

Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz

A typical, political non-answer but an answer none too surprising from a Congresswoman more concerned about who is drinking soda in her Congressional district or some wolves in Idaho somewhere.

She did not, in any area of the letter, address the Federal Reserve. She addressed the federal budget and even gave crap solutions for fixing that. They might call Allyson the "Nancy Pelosi of the East", but we'll just call her "dumber than a bag of hammers."

- AP