Bachmann: Fed does whatever it wants

By Chris Steller
Friday, September 25, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Photo: house.gov

Photo: house.gov

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann had a chance Friday morning to question the top lawyer for the Federal Reserve Bank during hearings into an audit of the Fed proposed by Rep. Ron Paul (with whom she’ll share a stage at the University of Minnesota tonight). “The Federal Reserve seems to have the power to do anything it wants to do without any restrictions whatsoever,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann was talking about Section 13.3 of the Federal Reserve Act, under which the Fed can make discount-rate loans to, for instance, bail out Bear Stearns.

The Fed’s top lawyer, Scott Alvarez (who charmingly begins every answer with “So … “), said the Fed had used its 13.3 powers only in the 1930s and 1960s, not the 1980s as Bachmann suggested. Under later questions on the same topic, he said 13.3 could only be invoked by a supermajority of the Fed’s board and under extreme circumstances.

Alvarez is the first of two witnesses before the House Financial Services Committee today. Next up was bestselling Libertarian author Thomas Woods, whose book “Meltdown” (with a foreward by Paul) Bachmann has studied.

I lost the House video feed for most of Woods’ testimony, but it seems to have gone less well than the average book-signing for him. As the hearing broke up, Woods could be heard off-mic, grumbling: “Good grief, I don’t know why I couldn’t get across what I was trying to say.”

Comments

12 Comments

ZNOFOB
Comment posted September 25, 2009 @ 1:28 pm

I know….

BACHMANN said it….

yet…

isn’t it TRUE?

I am no economist (chemist/physicist by trade) but the federal reserve just finished stealing billions of tax dollars from US the TAXPAYERS whom they will never pay back.

I realize I look at this issue simplistically, however, to ME it seems the FED is bankrupting us as scientifically and as purposefully as an algebraic equation.

What’s in YOUR wallet?


Agreed
Comment posted September 25, 2009 @ 1:50 pm

Agreed. What the hell were these Fed bailouts if not outright theft? Of course, our “representatives” had to vote to approve it. It seems the New World Order is lining up everyone for global currency, and a “redistribution” is taking place to prepare for it. It all smells really fishy.


Fred
Comment posted September 25, 2009 @ 3:15 pm

How does global Islam feel now?


t-bag jones
Comment posted September 25, 2009 @ 4:12 pm

“Bachmann seems to have the power to say anything she wants, even if it ends up getting a census worker killed.”
t-bag jones


Mill
Comment posted September 25, 2009 @ 9:16 pm

The independence of the Federal Reserve is always annoying to those who just know what they should do differently. In fact, it’s annoying even to those who have no clue what they’d rather the Federal Reserve do differently.


jonerik
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 12:10 am

I have a lot of questions about the bailout and the Federal Reserve myself. But if Bachmann says it, IMHO, it is by definition not true because she is the incarnation of a bigot, nutjob and liar. She has no idea of what the Federal Reserve is or does. Her ravings reveal her as an ignoramus or lunatic. She is unqualified to hold public office. She is stirring racism and hatred which will result in deaths of innocent people if they haven’t already as with the murder of the federal census worker in Tennessee.

What’s in my wallet? About forty bucks and a few credit cards, and some other odd and ends. What’s in yours ZNOFOB? Let us know when people stop accepting those green things in your wallet for food and other necessities, and then maybe I’ll start listening about how “bankrupt” this country is.


Lazercat
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 12:58 am

Why is the census worker story being suppressed? We all know this goofy woman is to blame but, what is the big secret.

Check it out.

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/waronterror/p/torturelite.htm


t-bag jones
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 12:31 pm

MSM is irrelevant. You can fill volumes with what they don’t report. I have stopped watching all news broadcasts. All they do is report “news” I have known about for at least a day, or two. I advise people to stop viewing all news broadcasts, and get your news from the internet. It’s fresh, and you don’t have to listen to Repubs appearing on MSNBC. Or idiots like Wolf Blitzer who lose BIGTIME to a comic on Jeopardy!.


Lazercat
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

There she goes again, railing against federal employees and spreading fear. She has already instigated one murder. Where is the justice?

Earlier this summer, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) waged a high-profile, wildly-dishonest campaign against the Census. The Minnesota congresswoman said she was so worried about the threat of the government asking “very intricate questions” and collecting information that she would illegally refuse to fill out the form. “They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public,” she said. “This is very concerning.” She repeatedly used inflammatory and fear-mongering rhetoric against the Census:

– “I think there is a point when you say enough is enough to government intrusion.” [6/25/09]

– “If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps.” [6/25/09]

“You will receive approximately six contacts from them [Census workers], either through phone calls or they will knock on your door. If you still do not give them the information, they said they’ll contact your neighbor to the left of you, to the right of you to get information.” [6/25/09]


Lazercat
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 12:34 pm

I killed the Kentucky Census worker — along with every conservative in America
By Michelle Malkin • September 25, 2009 10:38 AM

Oh, come on give the other Michelle some credit.


MNBlue
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 2:28 pm

Michele Bachmann has got to go! Democratic candidate Dr. Maureen Reed is running against her and she is the ticket to beating Bachmann’s craziness! You can learn more about Maureen, and donate, at:
http://maureenreedforcongress.com/
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Reed


Lazercat
Comment posted September 26, 2009 @ 5:14 pm

And when you talk to Dr. Reed ask her to comment on her previous employers practices.

St. Paul, Minn. — Hatch says his audit found that Healthpartners executives and several board members received numerous executive perks. For example, he says the company paid for several country club memberships for former CEO George Halvorson, who left the company last year.

He also says company officials engaged in unnecessary travel to places like Australia, Chile and Brazil. The trips include one Halvorson took to Australia to attend a seminar on how high health care costs were affecting consumers.

“Is this really relevant to what’s going on in this state?” Hatch asks. “We now have patients who have to be shipped on mental illness issues to places like Des Moines, Duluth, Sioux Falls. Shouldn’t we be directing our attention to the problems in regard to treatment in this state?”

Hatch doesn’t allege any criminal violations of the $2 billion company, which has 675,000 enrollees. 2001


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