Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Press Release: Let's Audit the Fed







For Immediate Release:
Contact: Randi Scott or Micayla Lee
Lindstrom for Congress

Let’s Audit The Fed

Omaha, NE – January 11, 2012 – With the national debt skyrocketing above $15 trillion, our 2nd District representative, Lee Terry, astonishingly insists that Nebraskans must be punished for Congress’s ineptitude. In a recent World-Herald article, Mr. Terry tepidly asserts that, because Congress has failed in its duty to reach a budgetary consensus, consequences must be felt. “Otherwise the message to the people is: Failure has no consequence” (http://www.omaha.com/article/20111122/NEWS01/711229905#some-lawmakers-not-fighting-cuts). Coming from Congressman Terry, this statement is somewhat perplexing – not to mention hypocritical – given that he voted to bail out those financial institutions that were deemed “too big to fail” back in 2008 to the tune of more than $700 billion. Why must the people invariably suffer while corporate lobbyists and big banks line their pockets with taxpayer money? It is shameful that Lee Terry places his narrow self-interests ahead of his constituents. But, it is not surprising given the congressman’s long tenure in Washington.

While Congressman Terry is one of many Washington insiders that has contributed a great deal to this country’s economic malaise, the Lindstrom campaign recognizes that other entities are also at fault. In particular, we take issue with the Federal Reserve and the remarkable lack of oversight that Congress has chosen to exert over this body. In a limited GAO audit (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf), it was determined that, over the course of the last four years, the Federal Reserve has doled out more than $16.1 trillion in taxpayer funds to banks that were “too big to fail” – an amount that exceeds our current national debt by more than $1 trillion! Even more shocking is that close to $3.1 trillion of this bailout money went to foreign-owned banks. And, to add insult to injury, according to a recent Bloomberg article, the Fed provided short-term, 28-day loans to these institutions at a rate of 1.1 percent – well below the standard rate of 3.8 percent that banks were charging each other to make similar monthly loans at the time (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-21/wall-street-aristocracy-got-1-2-trillion-in-fed-s-secret-loans.html).  

If this information was found in a partial audit, just imagine what might be discovered in a full and complete audit of the Federal Reserve. We need representatives in Congress that favor full financial disclosure – not representatives who like to spend our money with little to no oversight. We must get our financial house in order, and this starts with voting out the current batch of status-quo politicians and replacing them with a new group of representatives who possess courage, conviction, and leadership. Brett Lindstrom is the only candidate in the 2ndDistrict who has the requisite financial and leadership experience to usher in this new era of transparency. Brett opposes all government bailouts, and he will sponsor legislation that calls for a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve. Congress has ignored the American people for far too long. Isn’t it time to restore some fiscal transparency and bring some sanity back to Washington?
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