An audit of an organization the size of the Fed will inevitably turn up at least a couple meaty-tasting scandals, to be paraded around as representative of the whole by right-wing commentators. Congresspeople up for the midterms will then be called upon to repudiate the Fed -- "I never would've voted for the bailout if I'd known what kind of people were managing the economy!" -- thereby devaluing increased oversight of the financial industry as an issue for the midterms.

Quote: Original post by Dreddnafious Maelstrom
The Pentagon has been "audited" several times, although the last one I recall they stated that the Pentagon budget was too big to audit given the number of auditors they had. The Fed has never been "audited" in the manner being suggested. The legislation already exists to audit the Pentagon.

Is an attempted audit the same as an audit? If this bill passes and the result of the audit is that the fed is too big to audit, would you say that the fed was audited? I wouldn't. Along that same line of reasoning, I don't think the Pentagon has been audited.

Quote: Original post by Sneftel
An audit of an organization the size of the Fed will inevitably turn up at least a couple meaty-tasting scandals, to be paraded around as representative of the whole by right-wing commentators. Congresspeople up for the midterms will then be called upon to repudiate the Fed -- "I never would've voted for the bailout if I'd known what kind of people were managing the economy!" -- thereby devaluing increased oversight of the financial industry as an issue for the midterms.

I agree.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
Is Ron Paul going to call for an audit of the Pentagon next?
Is the USA ready to learn how much taxpayer money was flat out wasted in Iraq?

Given his position on the Iraq war he'd be a more likely candidate than most to call for such an audit.