Paul to make rare appearance in Washington for pet cause

Rep. Ron Paul – barely a presence on Capitol Hill these days – is taking time off from his still-ongoing campaign to return to Washington for one of his pet causes: bashing the Federal Reserve.

An advisory from the House Financial Services Committee says Paul will host a Tuesday subcommittee hearing on legislation to “either reform or abolish the Federal Reserve System". In a statement, the Texas Republican, who authored the 2009 New York Times bestseller “End the Fed,” claimed there’s growing public opposition to the Fed’s monetary policies.

“One hundred years is far too long for Congress to have taken a hands-off approach,” Paul said. “The Fed continues to reward Wall Street banks while destroying the dollar’s purchasing power and driving up the cost of living for average Americans. This reckless behavior must come to an end.”



At the beginning of the 112th Congress, Paul became chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. That’s led to some congressional showdowns between the longtime Fed foe and current chairman Ben Bernanke.

At a February hearing, Paul and Bernanke engaged in a long back-and-forth over inflation that included Paul asking Bernanke about whether he does his own grocery shopping – as a way to illuminate rising prices. The duo had also met in March 2011, when Paul used a hearing on the state of the economy to grill Bernanke on the meaning of the U.S. dollar.