I'm an intern in Barney Frank's DC office. Below the jump is a post from my blog about
- An utter rejection of GOP leadership that happened today
- My chat with Barney about the Federal Reserve
I don't usually advertise on Kos, but I thought you might like to read this one because while it won't make headlines, the vote cast today demonstrates serious disunity in the GOP.
Today I got to talk to my boss, Barney Frank, but let's start off this entry with what I saw on the House floor. We got covert intelligence that the GOP was going to disrupt the normal House proceedings, but Barney already had a major hearing scheduled. As we had worried, the GOP introduced an amendment to a transportation bill to remove funding for a bridge in Fall River that has been falling apart for 25 years. Their arguments were basically pointless. Like the Taunton Wild and Scenic scuffle from last week, the apparent aim of the amendment was to yammer about the energy crisis and natural gas and distract Barney from more important work. Barney was forced to come out of his hearings and yell at them on the House floor, which will hopefully be recorded in the Congressional Record by the end of the week.
A 15-minute vote was called and the entire House came through the doors. One Democrat traitor almost voted with the Republicans on this bill. He was constantly flipping his vote back and forth, finally falling in with the Democrats permanently after time ran out. This was probably Nick Lampson, Tom DeLay's replacement. He had also voted against the Democrats on the Taunton River bill.
Then, a huge surprise began to emerge. A motion to recommit is supposed to be a party line vote, but for this one, no fewer than forty-three Republicans crossed party lines, thirty-seven of them voting with the Democrats. This is pretty much unprecedented in recent Congressional history. Our staff noticed Ron Paul having a lively conversation with Barney on the floor, almost certainly about the shortcomings of the GOP. Barney came back into the office elated. A fast mood swing indeed! We were instructed to find out if this was the biggest GOP defeat of the 110th Congress, and he told us to issue a press release: "Frank and McGovern Fend Off Attacks From Republican Establishment."
We interns met with Barney just before wrapping up for the day, and talked for about 25 minutes. It was his impression that the GOP leadership was falling apart. He had received apologies from some of the Republicans who voted with the party line. Prominent Republicans said stuff like "they told me to vote that way and I didn't realize how awful it was." Both moderates and regular conservatives are fed up with time-wasting, partisan orders like the one that was issued today. While the party is in no danger of being destroyed, given its century-long history and deep support in conservative areas, the leadership is likely going to be completely demolished after Obama gets elected.
I was interested to know whether Barney, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee and primary overseer of Bernanke, thought the Federal Reserve needed reform. This is the organization that Ron Paul revolutionaries claim is a "private corporation" because all its shares are held by the banks. I didn't ask him point blank whether it was all just a scam and a cover-up, but he volunteered (without any questioning on my part) that the 12 Federal Reserve Banks were pretty much private banking groups run by bank presidents-- my summary, not his-- and while they didn't have a lot of power by themselves, the fact that these presidents had a say on the Federal Open Market Committee was alarming. He said that the committee had done a review of dissents at Federal Reserve meetings, and most of them (something like 25) were done by the bank presidents who wanted the interest rates to be higher. However, the fact that these are dissents and not majority opinions is also revealing. The banks only have 5 votes on a 12-vote committee, and they usually do not get their way. While they own all the "shares," the most important members of the Fed are appointed by the President and answer to the federal government, not the shareholders. Only two dissents were written by Fed governors asking for lower interest rates over the period Barney reviewed.
I also asked Barney about the infamous "infinite guarantee" to Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. I didn't ask whether it was good policy; he probably didn't want to talk about all that. I asked, rather, why the Fed had the power to extend that guarantee, and whether they could do it without congressional permission. He said that the power to make these guarantees was part of a set of "emergency powers" granted in the New Deal, and Bernanke consulted him before he made the decision, with the intent of swiftly guaranteeing Fannie's & Freddie's liquidity with legislation to certify the guarantee coming later. If Congress advised Bernanke not to make the guarantee and he did it anyway, it would be technically legal, but there would be such an uproar that the "emergency powers" would likely be revoked. So, if you're looking for corruption in financial legislation, don't look to the Fed: they wouldn't be around if not for Congress. And don't look to Barney either, because he is awesome.
He pointed out some of the neat stuff on his wall. He said he was surprised how fast the gay rights movement had come so quickly. This is a guy who started working in politics in 1968, when there was no gay rights movement to speak of. Now, on his wall there was a memorial from the CIA's first gay pride parade, and same sex marriages are completely legal in his own state. He also had a picture of his mom with Tip O'Neill, a name Bostonians might be familiar with.