As pretty much everyone expected, President Obama’s nomination for Federal Reserve chairman is a big-government Keynesian. Many left-wing pundits are applauding the nomination of Janet Yellen, the current Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She has held many prominent jobs within the Federal Reserve and politics.

Her positions on monetary policy reveal that she is just more of the same. She supports recklessly printing more money to “boost” the economy. But as we’ve seen with the seemingly endless quantitative easing programs, printing excessive amounts of money has devalued the dollar and hurt the poor the most.

According to the New Yorker, “More recently, at the Fed, she has strongly supported Bernanke’s unorthodox (but very necessary) efforts to revive the economy and bring down the unemployment rate, and to expand the Fed’s thinking beyond its traditional fixation with inflation.”

Nominee Janet Yellen also opposes a full audit of the Fed because it would "affect its independence." Yeah, that's the point. A 2011 limited audit revealed the Fed secretly gave $16 trillion to banks, corporations, and foreign governments. Given the Fed’s reckless bailouts to special interests, does anyone think that the Fed deserves the independence to do whatever it wants?

However, I’m hesitant to call Janet Yellen the wrong choice for Federal Reserve chair because that implies that there is a “right” choice. There is no one person that should have the ability to dramatically impact the economy at a drop of the hat. The problem is the Federal Reserve, not Yellen—or whoever is in charge at the Fed.

A full audit of the Fed would be more significant than the Federal Reserve chairman. However, the oft-introduced Federal Reserve Transparency Act has never been voted on in the Senate. This bill would eliminate the current audit restrictions placed on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and require a full and thorough audit of the Federal Reserve.

Last year, the Audit the Fed bill passed the House, 327-98! Despite the bill passing with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow a vote on it. This is odd because Reid used to be an outspoken supporter of Federal Reserve transparency.

Don’t believe me? In 1995, Harry Reid said on the floor, "I think it would be interesting to know about the Federal Reserve. I think we should audit the Federal Reserve. It's taxpayers’ money that is being used there."

Oh, and here’s another interesting Reid quote, "There is no entity in the world that controls our lives more than the Federal Reserve System"

1995 Harry Reid is absolutely right.

The Federal Reserve has virtually unchecked power to control the economy and the value of our money. This is especially troubling since the Federal Reserve has maintained a veil of secrecy. Since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve has never been fully audited. The central bank has been operating for 100 years with no real transparency.

The time for an audit is now. FreedomWorks supports Sen. Rand Paul’s efforts to get a vote to audit the Federal Reserve as a condition for considering the nomination of Janet Yellen for Federal Reserve chair.



No vote on Janet Yellen until the Audit the Fed bill finally gets a vote.

Click here to see Senate Republicans who have not cosponsored S. 209, the Audit the Fed bill.

