July, 24 2012, 04:16pm EDT
Kucinich: It's Time to Audit the Fed
WASHINGTON
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following video and statement in support of H.R. 459 which would finally allow the Government Accountability Office to audit the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed). Congressman Kucinich has long supported auditing the Fed and successfully won a partial audit in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
See the video here. The full text of the video follows.
"The House of Representatives is considering H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. H.R. 459 would enable the Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.) to conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve, something it cannot do under existing law. Finally, after trillions of dollars, secret deals and Wall Street bailouts - a thorough audit.
"Recent events remind us how important monetary policy is to our economy. The ever-deepening scandal involving the fraudulent manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") reminds us that the international financial system is cloaked in shadow for the benefit of the banks, at the expense of the people. Remember, it took a lawsuit by Bloomberg News to force the Fed to reveal that it had created more than $7 trillion to rescue the banks during the financial crisis.
"We already know that the Federal Reserve had knowledge of the Libor scheme, at least as far back as 2007. During the financial crises of 2008 and in the aftermath, the Federal Reserve extended extraordinary support to financial institutions that crashed the economy with reckless speculation, and on that support many of the firms made billions in profit and paid obscene bonuses. I fought hard to have the partial audit included in the Dodd-Frank and we learned about some of the Fed's responses to the fiscal crisis, but we need to learn the full extent of the Fed's activities.
"The Fed should not be permitted to operate in the dark without oversight by Congress and accountability to the people. The American people deserve no less than a full and complete audit.
"The Federal Reserve wants to stay independent; independent of the Constitution, independent of Congressional oversight and independent of the rule of law. We can't let that happen. It's time to audit the fed."
Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
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"As CMS negotiates the prices Medicare will pay for top-selling drugs, it should take into account the billions we've already lost due to these patenting tactics," said one researcher.
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But according to a report released Wednesday by the watchdog group Public Citizen, the manufacturers behind these drugs are able to rely on another method to protect their profits: patent abuses and evergreening tactics.
The report defines "evergreening tactics" as the practice of "patenting trivial and/or obvious modifications of existing medications to lengthen exclusivity on branded medicines."
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"Patent abuses enable Big Pharma companies to unfairly extend their monopolies and keep prices artificially high. As CMS negotiates the prices Medicare will pay for top-selling drugs, it should take into account the billions we've already lost due to these patenting tactics," he added.
The report makes this same point, arguing that the agency's initial offers on pharmaceuticals should take into account how long-monopoly drugs have been able to obtain longtime exclusivities on medicines by manipulating patents.
This is paramount, Public Citizen argues, given the scope of lost savings. The group estimates that Medicare will lose somewhere between $4.9 and $5.4 billion in savings that should have accrued to taxpayers if four out of the 10 drugs did not take advantage of patenting tactics, and therefore would have faced greater competition prior to negotiation.
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Yesterday, @USUN brought together humanitarian leaders to discuss solutions to the global food insecurity crisis.
Hunger is a man-made tragedy. But if it caused by man, that means it can be stopped by us, too.
Every human being, everywhere, has the right to food. pic.twitter.com/zczlerRHEc
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) December 10, 2024
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