Ironic How Politics Have Changed: Ron Paul Calls out Harry Reid for Fed Flip-Flop

The GOP-controlled House voted last week 327-98 to pass “Audit the Fed,” a bill sponsored by longtime Fed nemesis, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). The legislation gives Congress greater scrutiny over the Federal Reserve.

However, although the bill’s passage is a great victory for the Texas congressman, everyone (himself included) is fairly certain it will die once it makes its way to Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

What’s funny is that, as mentioned before on TheBlaze, Sen. Reid was all for auditing the Fed before he was against it -- and Rep. Paul called him out for it during an interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.

“Let me talk about your bill, ‘Audit the Fed,’ it faces resistance in the Senate where Democrat leaders vowed not to put it to a vote. What are the chances of it becoming law?” Bartiromo asked.

“Not all that great,” Rep. Paul responded, “But I think what's interesting if anybody really cares about how things are working here, they ought to go back and look at a speech that Senator Reid gave in 1995 where he was bragging about how strongly he supported the position of auditing and reigning in the Federal Reserve.”

“It's ironic how politics have changed. The American people want the vote, and that's how we got the floor on the vote last week. 75 percent to 85 percent of the people want transparency,” he added.

Watch the discussion [via CNBC]:

Monetary policy decisions are “very political,” Rep. Paul continued.

“We have an obligation and a right to know what the Fed is doing in secret when they bail out their friends and bail out the banks, and get involved in overseas financing, as they are prepared to do in Europe right now,” he added.

Bartiromo then questioned Rep. Paul about his longstanding crusade: ending the Fed.

“If you end the Fed, what's the replacement?” Bartiromo asked.

“You don't have to replace it with anything, but if you read the book [‘End the Fed’] carefully, I don't claim they should be ended in one day or two. The Fed will end itself when they destroy the money and we'll have to have a new system and that time will come,” Rep. Paul responded.

“So I just want people to have options and be able to use something else other than just using this monopoly money run by a government monopoly where they have total control,” he said, adding that politicians and bankers are “addicted to the drug of easy money and easy credit.”

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Front page photo source: goldnewsweekly.com, the AP contributed to this report.