Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul appeared on the Fox Business Network on Thursday to discuss the rule change in the Senate that has been deemed “radical” by both opponents of measure and the three-time presidential candidate. Dr. Paul also touched upon the Senate Banking Committee approving 14 to 8 President Obama’s Federal Reserve Chair nominee, Janet Yellen, which could be a significant factor to the news.
Aside from the Obamacare website and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s scandals, something else made headlines Thursday: Senate Majority leader Harry Reid instituting the “nuclear option” to stifle the filibuster that had been used by Republican Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz within the past year.
Under the previous rule, it took 60 votes to break a filibuster – the Democrats have 55 seats in the Senate – but after Thursday’s alteration of the 200-year-old tradition, it will only require a simple majority (50 plus one). A move that has been deemed radical and the GOP leadership says the Democrats “will regret this.”
Paul, the author of “End the Fed” and “Liberty Defined,” made the speculative case that the purpose of the rule change was to get Yellen in as Fed Chair without any difficulty. Kentucky Senator Paul had talked about possibly threatening Yellen’s appointment. Perhaps this was the motivating force as to why Reid changed the rules at the last minute.
“I dislike the system. I think she’s more of the same but only worse. He [Rand Paul] thinks she’s really a lot worse, she’s a really strong inflationist. And I don’t think she hides it,” stated the host of the Ron Paul Channel. “I keep thinking we’re going to continue with the QEs – and we’re up to QE3 now – but I think we’re more likely to have another QE before we are likely to get tapering. Maybe next year when she gets control of this thing we’re going to have QEY.”
On the topic of transparency, Paul noted that during her testimony last week, Yellen said she supported transparency of the central bank but not of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, S. 209.
A date has yet to be scheduled for the Yellen vote in the Senate. It is expected that she will have the necessary votes to become head of the Fed when Ben Bernanke’s current term expires on Jan. 31, 2014.
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