Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney just stole a page from Ron Paul's playbook.
At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, the soon-to-be presidential nominee quickly and directly answered the question, “Isn't it time to audit the Federal Reserve?”
Romney answered, "Very plain and simple, the answer is yes. The Federal Reserve should be accountable. We should see what they're doing."
Paul's proposal already has won the support of Congress. Earlier this year, the House passed a bill to grant the Government Accountability Office (GAO) the power to conduct an audit. The bill has languished as Senate Democrats have kept it from an up-or-down vote.
A previous, and severely limited, GAO audit found the Fed had used extraordinary powers during in the aftermath of the financial mess. Unfortunately, as we can see from their conclusion, the usefulness of the audit was limited by its scope.
There is a caveat in Romney's new position though. Romney would maintain the Fed's independence and would not bring the Fed under any congressional control.
Romney later stated, “I don’t want to have Congress run the Fed, by the way. I want to keep it independent. There are very few groups that I would not want to give the keys to, one of them is Congress.”
It is safe to say that Romney won't suffer for it. Considering Congress' approval rating is in the single digits, he may actually see more support by clarifying his position. Adding control of complex monetary policy to the gridlocked and highly partisan political environment certainly wouldn't please voters.
Thanks to Paul's persistent push for accountability, the proposed audit is going to be an official Republican party platform. When asked if the Fed audit language would make it into the official Republican Party platform yesterday, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell confirmed the speculation.
"It calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve on an annual basis, but it is very specific that it has to be done in a way with appropriate flexibility that it does not impair the independence of the Federal Reserve... Many of us believe that more sunshine more accountability of the federal government, and state government for that matter, is a good idea."
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