Ron Paul discusses the Fed, Iran, Tea Party Protests and new book

2008 Republican Presidential candidate and Congressman from Texas, Ron Paul, sat down with Russia Today on Thursday to discuss the Federal Reserve and his bill, H.R. 1207, which would audit the Fed.

Long time advocate of ending the Federal Reserve System, Ron Paul, sat down with Russia Today’s Marina Portnaya to discuss his views on the United States Central Bank, Iran, the economy and many other domestic issues currently occurring. Portnaya immediately began asking questions on House Resolution 1207 Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which is a bill that would give Congress the power to audit the Fed and has now reached just under 300 co-sponsors, including all Republicans and 93 Democrats. “The bill technically removes all prohibitions to the Congress for not looking into the Federal Reserve,” said Congressman Ron Paul. “They’re allowed to audit, except for the important things they don’t want to be audited for.” Doctor Paul introduced similar legislation in 1983, which prompted her to ask why it has taken so long for Washington’s Representatives “to get on board and move forward” with this type of bill. Paul replies, “People weren’t worried enough.” He continued, “Back then I was worried and I got concerned out of the 70s because of the breakdown of Bretton Woods and that’s why I ran out for Congress to talk about the financial situation, in that it would get out of hand and cause too much debt and too much growth of government. It would encourage the building of our empire and yet people never felt panicked enough. Today they’ve felt very concerned of what was happening. I wasn’t able to convince my colleagues of it as much as the people heard about it and lobbied their Congressman.” Portnaya went on to discuss the Obama administration wanting to give the Federal Reserve more oversight and regulating power in which Paul chuckles and responds, “It’s very ironic! I blame the Fed for almost everything, at least the basic flaw in the inflationary bubbles that we have.” On the topic of the Tea Party protests, Paul is not worried that they’re upset and frustrated but why they are actually upset and frustrated. However, what does worry the Congressman is that the government doesn’t listen nor respond to the people. Furthermore, the 1988 Libertarian Presidential candidate believes Washington is headed towards a socialistic, dictatorial and authoritarian government. Tensions have been on the rise between Washington and Iran for several years now. Portnaya quotes Dr. Paul that the international community’s actions against Iran is nothing but “warmongering.” Paul replies, “I don’t like what’s going on because it’s not in America’s interest. It’s not in America’s interest to antagonize and stir up trouble. Yes, it’s a serious matter what’s happening in Iran but we don’t have the right to spend tens of millions of dollars in programs with our CIA to have an overthrow of their government.” He further elaborates, “We have such a mess over there now. We’re still deeply involved in Iraq. We’re replacing a couple of troops with a whole lot of contracts. We’re deeply bogged down in Afghanistan and that deteriorates. We’re constantly bombing Pakistan and here now we’re stirring up trouble. If we put up stronger sanctions against Iran, that’s an act of war. If somebody came and put strict sanctions on us, we’d consider that an act of war.” Ron Paul was in New York last week for a signing of his new book “End the Fed” and conducted interviews and Portnaya asks if he is surprised that his movement he inspired a couple of years ago is still gaining a lot of momentum. The author of “The Revolution: A Manifesto” and “Foreign Policy of Freedom” humbly responded that it’s not so much about him except that he’s delivering a message. It’s actually more about the American people who are frustrated and sick and tired of the two political parties in the United States. He concludes that if the people still want to hear his message of abiding by the rule of law, economic prosperity through the markets rather than the federal government and freedom then he is still willing to deliver that message.