Sen. Vitter to Offer Grayson/Paul Audit the Fed Amendment as Stand-Alone Amendment

While some are celebrating the Sanders’ Audit the Fed compromise as a victory, Ron Paul isn’t one of them. And according to the Matt Hawes of the Campaign for Liberty, David Vitter will be offering up the original Grayson-Paul amendment as a stand-alone amendment.

According to the Washington Post, the White House now supports the Sanders amendment.

Although Ron Paul called Bernie Sanders and asked him to offer the bill in the Senate in the first place, Bernie evidently didn’t consult Paul or Grayson on his compromise. Paul found out about it when Bernie mentioned it from the floor of the Senate. Regardless of any merits of the Sanders amendment itself, procedurally it was not handled in a way that would insure left/right cooperation in the future. That’s something we worked very hard to structure from the start of the Audit the Fed campaign over a year ago. And, I might add, it was the only reason Audit the Fed didn’t suffer the fate of Kaufman’s “break up the banks” amendment last night. They banks could work through the GOP to block it, giving cover to ConservaDems to support them. It got hammered, 61-39.

Further, Bernie Sanders was on CSPAN yesterday morning saying that there were going to be changes to the amendment in conference. What changes? Well, who know. Shelby, Dodd and Frank will probably be the conferees who decide how the House and Senate bills get resolved, even assuming the Sanders amendment passes. Celebrating language in an amendment even before it’s been voted on seems a bit premature at best.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/05/07/vitter-to-offer-...