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As support for Fed transparency grows, New York’s representatives lay low
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Rep. Carolyn Maloney (right) has Ben Bernanke's back (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
With the Federal Reserve printing money like it’s going out of style, massive bailouts shrouded in secrecy, and no real accountability, an audit would seem long overdue. After all, the Federal Reserve has never been audited in its 95-year history.
The Federal Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 1207), introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, would mandate an audit of the Fed. Although legislation authored by Paul rarely gets much traction, the obvious common sense underlying H.R. 1207 has earned it 124 co-sponsors. They include Democrats and Republicans alike, and hail from almost all regions of the country.
The New York congressional delegation, however, is noticeably underrepresented among the co-sponsors. In fact, only two representatives from New York State have co-sponsored the legislation – Eric Massa, a Democrat from western New York, and John McHugh, a Republican representing the northern part of the state.
New York City and Long Island have six representatives sitting on the House Financial Services Committee – where H.R. 1207 was introduced and where it must pass first if it is to make it to a floor vote – yet not one of these members has seen fit to co-sponsor the bill.
Why would none of our local representatives want to endorse something as non-controversial as a Federal Reserve audit? Don’t they believe in government transparency? Don’t they want to know how trillions of our dollars are being spent?
In such situations, the famous Roman consul Lucius Cassius liked to ask, cui bono? Who benefits?
The biggest beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve’s unchecked power are Wall Street investment houses and commercial banks. They benefited in the early part of the decade from the artificially low interest rates set by the Fed, and they benefit today from the massive TARP bailouts, the recipients of which the Federal Reserve refuses to disclose.
Are our local members of Congress in the pockets of the big banks? A quick perusal of their donation records indicates as much. According to OpenSecrets.org, the top contributors to Financial Services Committee member Carolyn Maloney over the course of her career include employees, directors or PACs associated with the following:
#1 Citigroup $81,999
#2 JP Morgan Chase & Co. $78,950
#4 American Bankers Association $70,950
#5 Goldman Sachs $65,350
#12 Morgan Stanley $47,550
#13 Bank of America $46,000
The financial records of Maloney’s fellow Financial Services Committee members from the city show a a similar pattern. The #1 industry for contributors to Nydia Velazquez for her career is Commercial Banks, while Gregory Meeks’ career donations record shows Securities & Investment at #1 and Commercial Banks at #5.
Of course, these huge contributions could have nothing at all to do with our local representatives’ reluctance to co-sponsor H.R. 1207. They could each have their reasons for not wanting greater Fed transparency, but they have certainly not shared those reasons with their constituents.
Like the Federal Reserves’ books, our congressional delegation’s motivations remain a mystery.
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