The Federal Reserve – the quasi-public organization that largely controls U.S. monetary policy behind closed doors – doesn't want investigators poking their noses into its operations.

And now, the banksters have emerged victorious once again, as Audit the Fed legislation introduced by Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul fell short of the 60 votes required for it to pass on Jan. 12.

Senate Democrats voted against Paul's bill, claiming the Government Accountability Office already audits the Fed and the measure would abolish the central bank's independence.

But what advocates of a full audit really want is a full investigation of how the Fed determines monetary policy – planning that happens entirely behind closed doors. If transcripts are released, they are usually published five years after those closed-door meetings happen.

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Get the real story about America's money woes, in "End the Fed," by retired Rep. Ron Paul.

As WND has reported, the fight for the audit dates back years. Former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, repeatedly introduced bills calling for an audit that were adopted in the House but went nowhere in the Senate.

In an exclusive interview with Follow the Money Radio's Jerry Robinson, Rand Paul, the son of former Rep. Ron Paul, discussed the recent Senate vote on his "Audit the Fed" bill.

"It took a long time to get this vote," Paul said. "I worked for five years to get this vote. ... We did get 53 votes in favor, so that is a significant milestone in the sense that we got a majority of people to vote for Audit the Fed and we got a vote."

Listen to Robinson's interview with Rand Paul:

As WND reported in February 2015, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen claimed the central bank has already opened its books to an outside auditor.

"The other side argues, 'Oh, they're already audited,'" Paul said. "Well, it's kind of like saying, yeah, they're audited to know how much money they spend on coffee, donuts and salaries. But they really aren't audited on the main part of what they do and where their money is located."

In 2009, former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress and admitted he didn't know where trillions of U.S. dollars went after the 2008 crisis.

"Bernanke had no answer," Paul said. "The auditors have no answer because the auditors aren't allowed to look at the transactions concerning their assets."

Paul added, "We did have a one-time special audit that was stuck in Dodd-Frank, and this was something that my dad pushed for. Through that we learned that there was $16 trillion worth of loans that occurred during the crisis. Some of this, in fact maybe as much as a half-a-trillion, went to foreign banks and foreign institutions."

As WND recently reported, former Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher explained to ZeroHedge the hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. currency that the Federal Reserve issued over the Obama administration's tenure.

"What the Fed did, and I was part of it, was front-loaded an enormous market rally in order to create a wealth effect … and an uncomfortable digestive period is now likely," he said.

In short, "The Fed is a giant weapon that has no ammunition left," he said.

Watch former Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher's comments:

Rand Paul said Congress has many questions for the Federal Reserve and has received very few answers.

"They say that we know all the assets, and they'll show you a big book that has all the assets," Paul said. "But they don't individualize it, so you don't know what mortgages are held. You don't know whether they're valued appropriately. There really is not much of a look into the Federal Reserve decision making as far as interest rates go. So we think the current audit that they say they have is a farce, and we're going to keep pushing the issue."

Robinson noted that Democratic Party presidential candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., crossed the aisle to support the Audit the Fed bill, but Republican Party presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz was absent when the vote was actually cast.

"It was disappointing that Ted Cruz didn't show up for the vote," Paul said. "He was the only Republican that didn't show up. There are varying degrees of support for things. I think one of the indications of whether you truly support something is actually showing up for the debate and for the vote. But we were excited to get the vote, and we're going to continue pushing this. I continue to push the idea that interest rates should be set by the marketplace. …

"I think a lot of the boom and bust cycle is created by the Fed, if not exacerbated by the Fed," Paul said.

The argument against the Fed centers on Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which assigns to Congress the power to coin money. There is no mention in the Constitution of a central bank, and it wasn't until the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that the Fed was created.

Ron Paul has said: "Throughout its … 100-year history, the Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy."

In his book, "End the Fed," Ron Paul argued that the Fed "is both corrupt and unconstitutional."

The book described the Fed as "inflating currency today at nearly a Weimar or Zimbabwe level, a practice that threatens to put us into an inflationary depression where $100 bills are worthless."

Get the real story about America's money woes, in "End the Fed," by retired Rep. Ron Paul.